AWC/2008015620301
Clayton executed a transaction for a customer without the customer’s authorization or consent.
The customer agreed to open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) with Clayton’s member firm, to transfer approximately $199,921 from an existing IRA account and to invest the funds in a mutual fund. The customer executed a new account form, a request to change investments form and other documents necessary to accomplish the transaction; Clayton was the broker responsible for the customer’s account at the firm.
The transfer of funds from the customer’s existing IRA account had not yet been completed before Clayton received an electronic mail message from the customer in which she requested that her 23 funds be placed in a money market account rather than in the mutual fund; the customer thereby withdrew her authorization for the purchase of shares in the mutual fund. Despite Clayton’s knowledge that the customer no longer wished to purchase shares in the mutual fund, he did not take any steps to cancel the customer’s order and executed the purchase of the mutual fund shares.