September 16, 2021
ablokhin |inventory.adobe.com
The Monetary Trade Regulatory Authority imposed a $5,000 wonderful and eight-month suspension primarily based on expense-account associated allegations on a no-longer-registered New York Metropolis dealer with 21-years’ expertise, together with for prime brokerages, and no prior disclosures on his BrokerCheck file.
Finra alleged Anthony DeJohn improperly charged $2,270 to a bank card issued by BMO Capital Markets, the place he labored from 2015 to 2020, for his day by day bus commute to and from his New Jersey house to his New York Metropolis workplace over a six-month span in 2019, in line with a letter of settlement finalized Tuesday. He falsely represented a few of the bills as associated to his journey to see shoppers, in line with the regulator.
“These bills have been private bills that weren’t eligible for reimbursement as enterprise bills underneath BMO’s insurance policies,” Finra mentioned.
DeJohn, who had additionally labored at Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Credit score Suisse Securities, Bear Stearns & Co., and most lately at a chief brokerage, ED&F Man Capital Markets, didn’t reply to a message left for him by means of social media. His lawyer, Michael Miu with Sack & Sack in New York Metropolis, didn’t reply to a name to his workplace.
Within the letter of acceptance, waiver, and consent issued by Finra, DeJohn agreed to the self-discipline with out admitting or denying the trade’s self-regulatory company’s findings. He repaid the agency inside 24 hours of being directed to take action, in line with the settlement letter.
Whereas he was not a retail dealer, the penalty displays Finra’s sharpened focus lately on following up on expense points by registered representatives. The penalties have carried a excessive value, together with trade bars, and have involved quantities as small as $273.
Finra thought-about DeJohn’s expense points a violation of its far-reaching Rule 2010, which requires brokers to “observe excessive requirements of business honor and simply and equitable ideas of commerce.
The regulator started investigating the matter after BMO Capital filed a termination U5 kind for DeJohn, disclosing that he had been discharged and alleging he had “used his company card for private bills.”
“For 4 of the reimbursement requests, DeJohn made handwritten notations on the bus journey receipts he submitted to the Agency, wherein he urged that he undertook the bus journey for shopper conferences away from his workplace,” Finra mentioned.
DeJohn wrote “Journey ticket Boston” and the identify of a shopper on one receipt, that he was touring to a different shopper on a second, and the identify of a Pennsylvania-based shopper on two different receipts, Finra mentioned. “In actual fact, the receipts didn’t signify the prices of DeJohn’s journey to shopper conferences, however slightly have been for month-to-month and ten-trip bus passes for his day by day commute,” Finra mentioned.
Spokespersons for BMO Capital Markets and ED&F Man Capital Markets didn’t reply to requests for remark.
On his LinkedIn account, DeJohn is described as “a profit-driven gross sales chief” who has constructed and managed “high-volume financing income streams by means of enterprise growth and relationship administration” and has “experience in prime brokerage, artificial prime brokerage, enhanced leverage automobiles, margin, and world clearance of securities.”
What’s now the only real blemish on DeJohn’s trade file quantities solely to “a horrific mind fart,” Invoice Singer, a securities lawyer who blogs about brokers’ authorized battles, wrote in a submit on the choice.
“He didn’t hurt any buyers,” Singer continued. “Regardless, DeJohn embarked upon a course whereby he basically took about $2,200 in cash that wasn’t his to take, and he took it from his employer BMO, which quantities to biting the hand that feeds you.”