Enforcement Actions
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
CASES OF NOTE
2010
NOTE: Stipulations of Fact and Consent to Penalty (SFC); Offers of Settlement (OS); and Letters of Acceptance Waiver, and Consent (AWC) are entered into by Respondents without admitting or denying the allegations, but consent is given to the described sanctions & to the entry of findings. Additionally, for AWCs, if FINRA has reason to believe a violation has occurred and the member or associated person does not dispute the violation, FINRA may prepare and request that the member or associated person execute a letter accepting a finding of violation, consenting to the imposition of sanctions, and agreeing to waive such member's or associated person's right to a hearing before a hearing panel, and any right of appeal to the National Adjudicatory Council, the SEC, and the courts, or to otherwise challenge the validity of the letter, if the letter is accepted. The letter shall describe the act or practice engaged in or omitted, the rule, regulation, or statutory provision violated, and the sanction or sanctions to be imposed.
Lisa Renee Mello (Principal)
AWC/2008012444202

Mello served as her member firm’s FINOP and was responsible for monitoring the firm’s financial condition to determine whether its net capital was sufficient to conduct a securities business. The firm’s registered representatives effected trades in collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) through the firm’s proprietary trading account. The transactions appeared to remove beneficial ownership of the CMOs from the firm, but they were sham transactions because the securities remained in the firm’s inventory.

The registered representative was able to accomplish and maintain his scheme because Mello and others at the firm reviewed his activity on a daily basis rather than in a manner that would evidence trading patterns over time and expose the firm’s losses and risk. As a result of the registered representative’s activity and the firm’s method of monitoring it, the firm conducted a securities business on multiple days while failing to maintain its required minimum net capital and, because Mello failed to discern the true effect of the registered representative’s trading on the firm’s net capital, she allowed the firm to conduct a securities business on multiple occasions while in violation of SEC Exchange Act Rule 15c3-1.

Lisa Renee Mello (Principal): Fined $8,000; Suspended as FINOP for 6 months
Bill Singer's Comment

As I noted in the apparent companion case of Kevin Bradley Martin:

According to FINRA, Martin erred because:

The registered representative was able to accomplish and maintain his scheme because Martin reviewed his activity on a daily basis rather than in a manner that would evidence trading patterns over time and expose the firm’s losses and risk.

I suspect that FINRA wanted to say -- meant to say -- something a bit different than how this came out.  If you take the statement as written, the Supervisor is being chastized for doing a daily review of his subordinate's trading.  And that's wrong, why?  If FINRA suggests that the daily review was improper, then the regulator owes its members a far more cogent explanation (if not warning), than to merely note that the the review should have been undertaken "in a manner that would evidence trading patterns over time and expose the firm's losses and risk."  Just exactly what is the regulator suggesting would have been preferable -- and not just for the sake of debate but for the pointed reason of eliminating Martin's liability for failing to review prop trading activity over a given period of time. Moreover, assuming that Martin was victimized by the fraud of the subject trader (which FINRA oddly doesn't note pro or con), is there any proof that a different frame of review would have elicited the patterns that, in hindsight, FINRA now concludes are so apparent?

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