Schams
accepted appointment
as an alternative agent attorney-in-fact over a customer account,
without his member
firm’s express written consent.
Schams was to receive
approximately $90,000 from the
customers’ estate. Schams accepted two $20,000 interest-free loans
on the anticipated
inheritance, without signing a promissory note evidencing the
loan, contrary to the
firm’s compliance policies that prohibited registered
representatives from exercising or
maintaining discretionary authority or power of attorney over
customer accounts and
borrowing money, accepting loans, issuing or transacting
promissory notes or other similar
forms of debt for customers without the express written consent of
the firm’s compliance
department.
Schams made material
misstatements to his
firm in a compliance questionnaire regarding borrowing money or
accepting a loan from
a client, holding any securities, stock powers, money or property
belonging to a client,
accepting client checks made payable to him, or endorsed to him
personally or in the name
of an entity, and managing or handling, in any way, the affairs of
any client account on a
discretionary basis.