KeyBank Broker Suspended for 2 Years, Fined $10K

FINRA has reprimanded a KeyBank financial advisor for lying on a customer's behalf.

Margaret C. Morgan, a broker for Key Investment Services in Anchorage, Alaska, was suspended for two years and fined $10,000 for  allegedly issuing a false "proof of funds" letter indicating that the customer had $9 million available for use when she knew that the customer did not have that amount of money at the bank.  Morgan also did not have a reasonable basis to believe that the customer held such funds elsewhere, FINRA claimed.

Morgan allegedly drafted and emailed the letter to a KeyBank customer and a third party at the customer's request in March 2014.

Morgan joined KeyBank in March 2011, leaving in August 2013 for a brief three-month stint with First Command Financial Planning, according to her BrokerCheck report. She returned to KeyBank in December 2013.

Morgan's two-year suspension begins on May 2, 2016.  She is no longer with the bank, said Drez Jennings, a spokesperson for KeyBank. 

Morgan could not be reached for comment. In her settlement with FINRA, she neither admitted nor denied the charges but consented to an entry of FINRA's finding.

Jennings declined to comment on Morgan's suspension. 

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Compliance Law and regulation
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