Finra Bars Ex-Ameriprise, Citi Dealer Who Stole $3.5 Million

The Monetary Business Regulatory Authority has barred a former Ameriprise Monetary and Citigroup dealer who admitted earlier this month to stealing $3.5 million from a former buyer. 

Sung Moo Cho pleaded responsible to wire and funding advisor fraud after federal prosecutors alleged that between 2023 and 2025 he stole $3.5 million from a consumer to repay bank card debt and pupil loans, take holidays and buy costly jewellery, in response to courtroom paperwork. 

Cho wired the cash to an outdoor firm the place a co-conspirator then transferred the funds to Cho’s private accounts, in response to courtroom filings. The ex-broker instructed the consumer that funds had been getting used for reliable funding functions. 

Finra barred him on Thursday after he refused to cooperate with its investigation into associated allegations, in response to a settlement letter.

Cho, who logged 19 years within the trade, allegedly eliminated prospects’ personally identifiable data from agency techniques at Ameriprise and Citi to create non-firm generated statements for shoppers, in response to the letter.

Citi, which employed him in October 2025, discharged him in April over associated allegations, in addition to refusing to cooperate with its investigation. He’s not registered as a dealer or funding advisor. 

Finra initiated its investigation into Cho after a buyer complained that he misappropriated roughly $3.5 million from their brokerage accounts by forging buyer signatures and falsifying agency paperwork, the letter stated. 

Cho refused to supply data and paperwork the Finra requested, violating its guidelines requiring brokers to cooperate with investigations and to conduct enterprise honorably, in response to the letter. He agreed to the trade ban with out admitting or denying Finra’s findings.

Neither Cho nor his lawyer, Norman Spencer with Norman Spencer Regulation Group in New York Metropolis, responded to requests for remark. 

Cho began in 2006 at Andrew Garrett in New York Metropolis and labored at six totally different companies earlier than becoming a member of Ameriprise in 2021, in response to BrokerCheck.

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