A former Wells Fargo dealer in San Francisco was ordered to repay the agency greater than $778,000 over unpaid recruiting loans, in response to a Monetary Business Regulatory Authority arbitration award on Tuesday.
Mathew Tong, who’s now not registered as a dealer or funding advisor, voluntarily resigned from Wells in January 2025, after 4 months on the job, in response to registration data. He had joined the wirehouse from JPMorgan Chase & Co.
A sole public arbitrator additionally ordered Tong to pay curiosity and canopy Wells’ $42,000 in attorneys charges, in response to the award.
The dealer didn’t reply to a number of makes an attempt by Wells to find and serve him with its assertion of declare, in response to the award. Wells attested to its quite a few makes an attempt to contact Tong, together with a “declaration from a personal investigator.”
Tong didn’t file a press release of reply nor did he have authorized illustration within the arbitration, in response to the award.
A Wells spokesperson mentioned the agency is “happy the arbitrator held him accountable for his mortgage.”
Tong, who couldn’t be reached for remark, first registered with Banc of America in 2005, joined Wells for the primary time in 2009, then moved to Merrill Lynch in 2011, in response to BrokerCheck. He joined JPMorgan in 2014.
The ex-broker has one buyer dispute on his file from March 2020, which had sought $43,700 in damages over allegations associated to suitability. The grievance settled two months later for greater than $20,500.
Brokers not often prevail in clawback circumstances, the place clear-cut contracts require that loans be repaid in the event that they depart earlier than the funds have vested. Final month, arbitrators ordered Wells to pay a former dealer $three million in damages based mostly on an allegedly defamatory U5 submitting, however it nonetheless held the dealer chargeable for repaying a million-dollar notice steadiness plus curiosity.