New York Securities Fraud Lawyers Blog
The securities attorneys at Malecki Law are interested in hearing from customers who have complaints against Joseph L. Bess, II. Mr. Bess was recently registered to sell securities with Waddell & Reed, in Edmond, Oklahoma, From April 2014 to July 2016, according to his publicly available BrokerCheck records maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Mr. Bess was registered by J.P. Morgan Securities, LLC from October 2012 to April 2014, according to BrokerCheck records.
Mr. Bess has fined and suspended from association with any FINRA member broker-dealer for two months by FINRA, after submitting a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent No. 2014041059901 (AWC). According to the AWC, Mr. Bess violated FINRA Rules 4511 (General Requirements) and 2010 (Standards of Commercial Honor and Principles of Trade) because from “January 2013 through January 2014, Mr. Bess marked a total of 139 order tickets for the purchase of exchange traded funds in the accounts of 21 customers as ‘unsolicited’ when, in fact, Bess had solicited each order by bringing the relevant ETF transaction to the attention of each customer.”
The AWC makes clear that pursuant to FINRA Rule 4511, broker-dealers must make and preserve books and records, and inherent in the Rule is the obligation that the records be accurate. The AWC confirmed that “by mismarking the order tickets, Bess caused his member firm to keep inaccurate books and records.”
Whether an order is marked as solicited or unsolicited is important. A solicited order for a purchase or sale of securities occurs when the broker brings the transaction to the attention of the customer. On the other hand, an unsolicited order occurs when the customer requests the transaction without the broker introducing it.
Mr. Bess’s BrokerCheck records indicate that he voluntarily resigned from J.P. Morgan Securities, LLC “while under internal review for allegedly soliciting unsuitable annuity products and for soliciting closed end funds which were not on firms approved solicitation list and marking those trades as unsolicited.”