Law and legal issues

Also this month in our disciplinary digest, a frequent CNBC analyst is sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding investors, and a former Fidelity advisor faced charges after borrowing millions from clients.

Recruiters say firms routinely cover advisors' lost deferred compensation in offer packages. Those deals are complicating efforts by advisors who contend they're still owed backpay.

Stanley Tulin and his wife, Riki, say they were deprived of more than $19 million by a scam run by their former investment advisors. And JPMorgan, they argue in a lawsuit, could have prevented the whole thing.

The mega bank had tried to resist going before FINRA arbitrators by arguing its brokerage unit wasn't involved in an $8.4 million fraud scheme. The victim and a federal judge disagreed.

A group of former Ameriprise brokers argue they had no say in a court agreement requiring them to hand over their cell phones and other devices to a third-party forensic examiner.

The win for Morgan Stanley comes after a recent string of victories against brokers who left for rival firms. But as the outcome in the JPMorgan case shows, firms don't always prevail.

The SEC's $1.8B off-channel communications crackdown shows how paused protocols can lead to crisis.

Chuck Roberts, whose recommendations of structured notes landed the St. Louis firm a nearly $133 million arbitration award, was kicked out of the industry after ceasing to cooperate with a regulatory investigation.

Morgan Stanley had gone to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to fight a lower court's finding that its deferred compensation policies fall under federal retirement law.

Many former college athletes will receive large lump sums, and current players face new NIL guidelines that come with large, officially sanctioned payments.

Panelists on a FINRA arbitration board cited Randy Anderson's claims of age discrimination when questioning UBS's reasons for firing its former broker. Now UBS argues in a court filing that no evidence of discrimination was ever presented.

In separate cases, two federal judges found that neither Wells Fargo nor LPL had a fiduciary obligation to look for clients' best interests with uninvested cash held in brokerage accounts.

A FINRA arbitration panel's decision marked a rare rebuke for a large wealth manager seeking to reclaim money it provided an advisor recruited from a rival.

A former marketing executive at the CFA Institute faces charges of embezzling nearly $5 million to fund extravagant expenses, including luxury travel and a $150,000 engagement ring, according to prosecutors.

George "Keith" Demetriades was accused of violating nonsolicitation clauses and misappropriating trade secrets after leaving for an RIA in 2023.

Now at Wells Fargo, Matthew McCrea is accused of violating a nonsolicitation agreement he signed at JPMorgan. The suit echoes allegations JPMorgan made days earlier against a broker now at Morgan Stanley.

An advisory panel has recommended changes that would bring arbitration rules for RIAs into line with those now governing FINRA proceedings for broker-dealers. The proposal still has to get through the SEC.

State regulators accused LPL Financial, Edward Jones, Stifel, RBC and TD Ameritrade of charging their clients unreasonably high and unfair commissions on 1.12 million equity trades over a five-year period.

Laura Sullivan stands accused of accessing confidential customer data and violating a nonsolicitation agreement by bringing along at least 15 client households.

Retired investor Tracy Driver alleges he was encouraged to put millions into a now delisted media company and then lost more through unauthorized sales of "prized" shares in Nvidia, Microsoft and Alphabet.