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December 03, 2019 at 03:31 PM
Providing a reminder that it’s best for advisors to never help one client at the potential expense of another client, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority suspended an ex-Morgan Stanley broker for 90 days after he allowed a wife to make withdrawals from her husband’s retirement account without the husband’s written authorization, according to FINRA.
Broker Eugene Nathan Gordon signed a letter of acceptance, waiver and consent on Nov. 14 in which he agreed to the suspension and to pay a $5,000 fine over his actions. He agreed to the letter without admitting or denying the findings. FINRA accepted the letter Nov. 27.
Gordon entered the securities industry in December 2003, when he became associated with Citigroup Global Markets (CGM), and he remained with that firm until June 2009, when he shifted to Morgan Stanley in connection to a corporate combination involving CGM and Morgan Stanley, according to FINRA.
(Related: A Broker Impersonated His Client … Twice. It Didn’t Go Well.)
He was associated with Morgan Stanley until he was terminated Feb. 2, 2018, the FINRA letter of AWC says. In a Uniform Termination Notice dated Feb. 23, 2018, the firm disclosed that Gordon was terminated due to: “Conduct and record-keeping concerns involving a husband/customer’s claims that the representative allowed the husband’s wife, who was also a customer, to make withdrawals from the husband’s retirement account, without the husband’s written authorization for the withdrawals or the related transactions.”
Between January 2013 and March 2017, Gordon “effected transactions in his customer’s IRA based upon instructions given to him” by the customer’s wife, who was “not authorized to direct transactions in the customer’s account,” according to the AWC letter.
