Troubled History Of Liens And Bankruptcies Disqualifies Stockbroker

Respondent Michael Earl McCune has a troubled financial history, marked by filings of bankruptcies and tax liens. As a registered representative in the securities industry since 1987, Respondent was obligated by NASD and FINRA Rules to disclose these events to his employer firm, and to ensure that they were reflected in timely amendments to his Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration or Transfer ("Form U4") filed with the Central Registration Depository ("CRD"). His failure to meet these obligations led to the Complaint and hearing in this case.

Respondent filed his first bankruptcy petition in 1989. He did not disclose it until 1996, when he amended his Form U4 as he began employment with a new firm. Six years later, in 2002, Respondent filed another bankruptcy petition; it was dismissed in 2005. The Complaint does not include Respondent's failure to make timely disclosures and the appropriate amendments to his Form U4 in connection with these bankruptcy petitions.

In 2005, Respondent filed his third bankruptcy petition. Subsequently, from 2009 to 2011, four tax liens - one state tax and three federal - were filed against him. However, Respondent did not disclose any of these events to his employer firm as he should have, and he neglected to amend his Form U4 until his employer learned of them in 2011.

The Complaint charges Respondent with willfully failing to disclose the 2005 bankruptcy and the four lien filings to his firm, and willfully failing to make timely amendments to his Form U4, in contravention of Article V, Section (2) of the NASD and FINRA By-Laws, violating NASD Rule 2110 and IM-1000-1, and FINRA Rules 1122 and 2010. Enforcement requests a finding that these violations were willful, and asks the Hearing Panel to impose a six month suspension in all capacities, and a fine of $5,000. 

Respondent does not contest the facts alleged in the Complaint, but he urges the Hearing Panel to refrain from finding his conduct willful. He argues that a finding of willfulness is unduly harsh. A finding of willfulness subjects Respondent to statutory disqualification from the applied in this case are those existing at the time of the conduct at issue. . .

(39) A person is subject to a ‘‘statutory disqualification'' with respect to membership or participation in, or association with a member of, a self-regulatory organization, if such person

. . .

(F) has committed or omitted any act, or is subject to an order or finding, enumerated in subparagraph  (D), (E), (H), or (G) of paragraph (4) of section 15(b) of this title, has been convicted of any offense specified in subparagraph (B) of such paragraph (4) or any other felony within ten years of the date of the filing of an application for membership or participation in, or to become associated with a member of, such self- regulatory organization, is enjoined from any action, conduct, or practice specified in subparagraph (C) of such paragraph (4), has willfully made or caused to be made in any application for membership or participation in, or to become associated with a member of, a self-regulatory organization, report required to be filed with a self-regulatory organization, or proceeding before a self-regulatory organization, any statement which was at the time, and in the light of the circumstances under which it was made, false or misleading with respect to any material fact, or has omitted to state in any such application, report, or proceeding any material fact which is required to be stated therein.

A violation is willful if a person knows what he is doing when he acts in violation of the applicable rules and federal securities laws. In other words, if a person voluntarily does something that is prohibited, the violation is willful. In the context of a Form U4 disclosure violation, it is enough if a person provides false information on a Form U4 "of his own volition," and that the false answer is "neither involuntary nor inadvertent." It is not necessary to show that a person intended to violate a rule, or knew of the particular rule he violated, to establish that a violation is willful.

[D]id not accept responsibility for and acknowledge his misconduct to his firm or to FINRA prior to detection and intervention by his firm. It was not until Royal Alliance confronted Respondent, after discovering in a credit check that Respondent had undisclosed bankruptcies and liens, that he admitted their existence. And his explanation fell far short of an acknowledgement of his misconduct. Rather, Respondent attempted to evade such acknowledgement: he sent an e-mail to Royal Alliance' s management in which he claimed that "[s]omehow" he "had the understanding that the U-4 did not require bankruptcy disclosure," and, with regard to his failure to disclose the liens, that he "(obviously incorrectly) thought that this referred to liens for civil judgements (lawsuits) although the language does not specify any particular type of lien." Tellingly, he added that this was "probably not [a] very satisfactory explanation. . .

[T]he filing of a bankruptcy petition is not an inconsequential event for anyone, particularly for one working in the securities industry, and that Respondent filed three bankruptcy petitions over the course of his career. We also must take into consideration the fact that Respondent possesses a law degree; previously worked, albeit briefly, for the IRS; and during his securities industry career worked in a managerial capacity for a time, during which he was responsible for reviewing the Form U4 filings of representatives he supervised. Furthermore, the annual compliance questionnaires he filled out, and the two Form U4s he filed with misleading answers to direct questions as to whether he had any bankruptcies lead us to conclude that Respondent's misconduct constituted a pattern, extending over a period of years, and included his concealment of the truth from his firm and from FINRA.

• Statutory Disqualification
• Bankruptcy
• Lien
• Tax Liens
• Form U4
• Willful
• Willfulness
• FINRA
• Bill Singer
• BrokeAndBroker
• IRS