Another former bank rep has been ousted from the industry for failing to cooperate with a FINRA investigation.
Phi Phuong Phan, a rep who was registered with J.P. Morgan Securities in San Jose, California, declined to appear and provide the regulator with on-the-record testimony regarding allegations that she may have structured a series of cash deposits into her personal bank account to avoid federal reporting requirements, according to her settlement with FINRA.
Failure to comply with FINRA investigations automatically result in a bar, the regulator said.
FINRA was looking into allegations that Phan tried to evade the filing of a currency transaction report, which must be filed by financial institutions for deposits, withdrawals and other transactions in currencies greater than $10,000.
Phan, who was barred on Tuesday, 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 findings.
FINRA did not provide details of the alleged structured cash deposits. She was discharged from J.P. Morgan Chase Bank in December 2015 for "violating bank policy governing personal finances," according to her BrokerCheck report.
Phan worked for both J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and J.P. Morgan Securities from April 2013 until her discharge in December 2015, BrokerCheck records show. She started with J.P. Morgan Chase Bank in April 2011.
Phan joins at least three other bank reps who were recently barred for their intransigence.
Mylinh Ton, another former J.P. Morgan rep, was expelled in April for not complying with a FINRA investigation into allegations that she may have structured a series of cash deposits totaling $120,000 in her personal bank accounts to avoid filing a currency transaction report.
Ton worked for both J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and J.P. Morgan Securities in Oakland, California. She was discharged from J.P. Morgan Chase Bank in June 2016, according to BrokerCheck records.
Ton's attorney, Christopher Cooke of law firm Murphy Cooke Kobrick, did not return an email message seeking comment. Ton agreed to a settlement with FINRA without admitting or denying the allegations against her.
Hossein Amirriahei, a former Wells Fargo broker in McLean, Virginia, was also banished in April for failing with comply with a FINRA inquiry. The regulator was looking into allegations that he engaged in unauthorized trading in two customers' accounts.
Amirriahei refused to appear for on-the-record testimony, the regulator said in the settlement letter he signed.
Amirriahei's lawyer, Michael Blumenfeld of law firm Freeman Freeman & Smiley, did not respond to an email seeking comment. In his settlement, Amirriahei neither admitted nor denied the charges but consented to an entry of FINRA's findings.
Amirriahei joined Wells Fargo Advisors in May 2009 and was discharged in September 2016 for the alleged misconduct, according to BrokerCheck records.
And as previously reported in Bank Investment Consultant,
Emily Acquisto, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Advisors, declined to comment on Amirriahei's expulsion, and Elizabeth Seymour, a spokeswoman for J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, declined to comment on the banishment of Phan and Ton.
