The securities fraud attorneys at Malecki Law are interested in hearing from investors who have complaints against stockbroker Brandon Gioffre. Mr. Gioffre was employed and registered from July 2014 to August 2015 with Constellation Wealth Advisors LLC, a New York broker-dealer, according to his publicly available BrokerCheck, as maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). According to BrokerCheck records, Mr. Gioffre voluntarily resigned from Constellation amid allegations that he was involved in “soliciting a private placement” to three individuals.
Per his BrokerCheck report, prior to his employment and subsequent resignation from Constellation, Mr. Gioffre was employed by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney from June 2009 to June 2014 and was discharged from this firm amid allegations of “fee reversals in [his] personal Morgan Stanley account, continuing to maintain a pre-existing outside investment that never received written approval from the firm, and fund transfers between [his] personal Morgan Stanley account and the accounts of family members.”
Subsequent to his resignation, Mr. Gioffre was barred from association with any FINRA member broker-dealer on June 22, 2016 by FINRA, after submitting a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent No. 2015046448701 (AWC). According to the AWC, Mr. Gioffre violated FINRA Rule 3040 by recommending to several people an investment in a private placement that was not offered through his firm. The AWC further stated that Mr. Gioffre “created the false impression that [the firm] sanctioned the private placement” by using the firm’s offices for meetings and his business email account to communicate with the investors.
The AWC detailed that the investments solicited totaled around $2,000,000, from which Mr. Gioffre received commissions totaling around $100,000, and that both investors lost their entire investments.
Rule 3040 requires that private securities transactions, those not offered by a broker-dealer, must be presented by the broker to his firm and obtain approval of such investment before soliciting customers, so that the broker-dealer can perform supervision of the investment.