Ex-Wells Fargo broker barred for not complying with FINRA inquiry

FINRA last week expelled a former Wells Fargo broker who was recently discharged from his job for allegedly taking money from an elderly couple.

Scott Sherwin Polish was barred for refusing to provide the regulator with the documents and information it requested to investigate the allegations against him, according to his settlement with FINRA.

Failure to cooperate with FINRA inquiries automatically results in a bar, the regulator said.

Polish, who worked for Wells Fargo in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, could not be reached. His attorney, Scott Matasar of Cleveland law firm Matasar Jacobs, said his client had no comment.

In his settlement with FINRA, Polish neither admitted nor denied the charges but consented to an entry of FINRA’s findings.

Polish was discharged from Wells Fargo in April after admitting to making transfers from client accounts to pay his personal credit card, Wells Fargo alleged in his BrokerCheck report. When the client questioned the transactions, he said that it was a mistake and reimbursed the client without reporting the complaint to the firm, Wells Fargo claimed.

Polish joined Wells Fargo Advisors in May 2009, moving to Wells Fargo Clearing Services in November 2016, BrokerCheck records show. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, he was with Wachovia Securities for one year and with Citigroup Global Markets for seven years.

Helen Bow, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Advisers, declined to comment on Polish's expulsion from the industry.

Polish joins a slew of other reps who were barred this year for not complying with FINRA investigations. Hossein Amirriahei, another former Wells Fargo broker, was barred in April for refusing to cooperate with a FINRA investigation into allegations that he engaged in unauthorized trading in two customers' accounts. Angelina Ozlem Todurge, Phi Phuong Phan and Mylinh Ton, three former reps with J.P. Morgan Chase, were also ousted in April for their intransigence. Todurge failed to comply with a FINRA inquiry regarding claims that she converted $13,000 for personal use, while Phan and Ton declined to cooperate with investigations into charges that they structured cash deposits in their personal bank accounts to avoid federal reporting requirements.

In February, FINRA also banished Eric Darty, a former broker with BBVA Securities, for not complying with an investigation into a series of unauthorized transactions.