BrokeAndBroker.com Blog by Bill Singer Esq WEEK IN REVIEW

September 24, 2022

https://www.brokeandbroker.com/6662/cedar-brooks-schlang-finra/
In 2016, Bradley Schlang's interest in a company was purchased pursuant to a Redemption Agreement providing for 10 years of quarterly payments. A few years later, Covid stopped the world. The folks who bought out Schlang's interest suspended further payments citing a negotiated, contractual right. Suffice it to say that when you're supposed to get paid, you want to get paid, and, Schlang argues that he never executed a Settlement Agreement, never executed Mutual Releases, and, well, things went from bad to worse, and into court -- but should they be in a FINRA arbitration? 

https://www.brokeandbroker.com/6674/finra and we-have-skin-in-the-game/
FINRA Small Firm veteran Granville Ungerleider is seeking your vote for his candidacy for the 2022 Small Firm Member of the FINRA National Adjudicatory Council ("NAC"). With some 20 years as a trader, market maker, salesperson, and investment banker, and the last 15 years as the owner of a small Broker/Dealer, Ungerleider has the credentials and experience required to do the job. 

https://www.brokeandbroker.com/6672/wells-fargo-johnson-arbitration/
In 2019, Wells Fargo discharged Robin Johnson. If you go by Wells Fargo's version of events, Johnson was let go because of concerns about the suitability of her recommendations to certain clients and for failing to complete a trade-approval worksheet. If you go by Johnson's version of events, she was terminated because she filed a claim with human resources alleging sex harassment and discrimination. Two very, very different explanations for why Johnson was terminated. On top of everything, Wells Fargo sued Johnson for her alleged failure to repay two Promissory Notes.

https://www.brokeandbroker.com/6673/sec-owb-oig/
The SEC's Office of Inspector General issued a scathing investigative report about the SEC's former Ombudsman. What's set out in the OIG report is just another sordid example of piss-poor management whereby large government bureaucracies are run by folks lacking the ability to effectively manage their agencies. The allegations of misconduct at the SEC's Office of the Ombudsman from 2017 through 2020 during the tenure of former SEC Chair Jay Clayton are disconcerting enough; however, in 2022, we now wrestle with SEC Chair Gary Gensler's lack of disclosure to Congress about OIG's investigative findings during his September 15, 2022, Senate Banking Committee testimony. Gensler's omission is all the more troubling because the former SEC Ombudsman had presented misleading information in four Annual Reports to the Congress.