Merrill Could Pay $82M for Broker's Excessive Trading

A Merrill Lynch branch office (Photo: AP)

A former Merrill Lynch advisor’s overzealous trading has cost the firm $40 million in a recent settlement, but a second dispute could put it on the hook for further settlements of nearly $43 million.

The fired advisor, Charles Kenahan, had been in the industry for 35 years. He spent the past 12 at Merrill Lynch, but also has worked for Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns and several other broker-dealers since 1985.

The June settlement over “unsuitable investment recommendations, excessive trading and misrepresentation from February 2012 until December 2017,” according to FINRA records, was first reported by MSNBC on Friday. 

The individual who brought the allegations against Kenahan is Robert Levine, a co-founder of the now defunct Cabletron Systems, MSNBC’s report said.