Erlich failed to disclose to his member firm that he personally possessed stock certificates belonging to prospective firm customers and details concerning such shares. By failing to disclose, Erlich prevented his firm from complying with SEC Rule 15c3-3 in that the firm, without knowing of the securities he possessed, failed to bring the securities under possession or control as required, and compute and maintain sufficient cash and/or qualified securities in its reserve bank account, as required; and prevented the firm from complying with books and records rules, which required that firms record the receipt of securities.
Erlich used a personal email account to send business-related correspondence. Although Erlich courtesy-copied his firm email address on a few of the emails he sent from his personal email account, he failed to copy or forward any of these emails to his firm managers. Erlich’s firm did not permit the use of non-firm email accounts for communications related to firm business, and that by using his personal email account for firm-related business and not copying or forwarding such emails to his firm, Erlich prevented his firm from discharging its supervisory obligations.