FINRA expelled another bank rep from the securities industry for life.
Barry Milinovich, a former registered rep with PNC Investments, the retail brokerage arm of Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, was barred for allegedly stealing a total of $10,100 from a bank customer's savings account, according to a filing FINRA posted to its disciplinary database on Thursday.
FINRA also alleges that Milinovich, who worked in a PNC branch in Cincinnati, misused the funds of another bank customer to create the false appearance that he had restored the money to the first customer's account.
According to FINRA, Milinovich made unauthorized withdrawals from the savings account of a bank customer on three occasions in the amounts of $2,000, $4,100, and $4,000 between April and July 2013, and used the money for his own purposes. When the customer raised concerns about her account balance, Milinovich attempted a magic trick. He closed the account and opened a new one and then pretended to deposit $10,100 into the newly opened account, FINRA said.
In reality, Milinovich closed out the certificate of deposit owned by a second customer, opened a new account for that customer, and deposited the proceeds of the certificate of deposit into that new account. He then showed the deposit slip to the first customer, falsely telling her that the money had been deposited into her account, according to FINRA.
Milinovich refused to cooperate with FINRA's investigation, failing to appear for testimony. PNC Investments dismissed Milinovich on Oct. 25, 2013, for the alleged misconduct.
In the offer of settlement submitted to FINRA, Milinovich neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but consented to an entry of FINRA's findings.
Fred Solomon, a spokesperson for PNC Financial Services Group, declined to comment, saying that the company does not comment on regulatory actions. Milinovich could not be reached.
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