Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently announced that it has expelled APS Financial Corporation, located in Austin, Texas, barred the firm’s former President, George Conwill, and barred Peter Aman, a former broker at the firm, in a scheme which overcharged an elderly investor by $1.2 million.
FINRA found that Aman charged mark-ups ranging from 4.15 percent to fraudulently excessive mark-ups as high as 67 percent when executing 45 transactions for customers of APS Financial. Forty-three of these excessive or fraudulent mark-ups were related to transactions for the accounts of a single elderly investor. Aman overcharged this elderly investor by more than $1.2 million through undisclosed mark-ups, including $767,000 in fraudulently excessive mark-ups.
FINRA also barred Conwill and expelled APS Financial for rule violations relating to trading in corporate high yield bonds, collateralized mortgage obligations and collateralized debt obligations. Both APS Financial and Conwill were cited for charging excessive mark-ups and supervision violations.
In total, APS Financial Corporation overcharged customers on 59 transactions. Conwill approved all 53 mark-ups above 5 percent, including 42 of the 43 excessive or fraudulent mark-ups for the elderly investor’s accounts.
FINRA also determined that APS Financial Corporation failed to establish and maintain an adequate supervisory system and otherwise failed to reasonably and properly supervise the firm and its registered representatives so as to detect and prevent the mark-up violations. FINRA found that Conwill, as the firm’s president at the time of the violations, failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the firm established and maintained an adequate supervisory system, and failed to reasonably and properly supervise the firm’s registered representatives.
APS Financial Corporation, Aman and Conwill settled these matters without admitting or denying the allegations, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings.
If you have questions about investments you made with APS Financial, The White Law Group may be able to help. For a free consultation, call the firm’s Chicago office at 312-238-9650.
The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida. With over 30 years of securities law experience, including experience working at FINRA (f/k/a the NASD) and the SEC, The White Law Group has the expertise to help investors defrauded in securities, investment and financial business transactions.
For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://whitesecuritieslaw.com.
Tags: APS Financial Corporation, APS Financial fraud, Austin, Boca Raton, broker fraud, Chicago, collateralized debt obligation, collateralized mortgage obligation, corporate high yield bonds, excessive mark-ups, excessive markups, FINRA, Florida, George Conwill, Illinois, investor fraud, investor protection, NASD, Peter Aman, SEC, Texas, Texas securities attorney, Texas securities fraud, Texas securities lawyer Last modified: December 7, 2022
