According to a FINRA disciplinary action announcement, Claus Christoph Foerster (CRD #1912949, Spartanburg, South Carolina) submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the findings, Foerster consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he solicited customers of his member firm to invest in a fictitious entity and converted their funds to his personal use.

The findings stated that Foerster solicited his securities customers to invest in the entity, which he marketed as an income-oriented investment. Foerster instructed customers to move funds from their brokerage accounts to their personal bank accounts via wire or electronic funds transfer. Foerster then instructed the customers to write checks from their personal bank accounts, made payable to the entity. The entity was not an investment fund, but a bank account that Foerster controlled. In furtherance of his scheme, Foerster provided some of the customers with fictitious account statements, and provided at least two customers with purported dividend payments on a monthly basis. Through these actions, Foerster converted approximately $3 million from customers.

For the full FINRA findings, see Case #2014041483401.

According to his FINRA Broker Report, Foerster was registered with Morgan Keegan from February 2008 through February 2013 and Raymond James from February 2013 through June 2014.

The foregoing information, which is all publicly available on FINRA’s website, is being provided by The White Law Group.  This is a story the firm has been following for some time.  For more information on the firm’s investigation in to Foerster and Morgan Keegan/Raymond James’ liability for its supervision of Foerster, visit http://whitesecuritieslaw.com/2014/07/07/claus-foerster-accused-of-3-million-investment-scam/.

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 Franklin, Tennessee.

For a free consultation with a securities attorney, please call The White Law Group at 312/238-9650.  For more information on the firm, visit http://whitesecuritieslaw.com.