Regulators have filed a complaint against a former advisor for making unsuitable recommendations to older investors who lost some $140,000.
Specifically, Christopher Ariola urged several retirees of a California transportation company to put funds into energy stocks and gold-related investments, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority complaint filed Thursday in California.
At the time, Ariola was working for Bay Mutual Financial when the recommendations were made from December 2011 to July 2012; he resigned from Bay Mutual in September 2012.
“These recommendations were unsuitable given these [three] customers’ financial circumstances, investment objectives and low risk tolerances, and because the recommendations resulted in these customers’ accounts being unduly concentrated in gold and energy stocks,” according to the FINRA complaint.
A client with funds in a TD Ameritrade account, who also had worked for the bus company, was similarly harmed by Ariola’s investment strategies.