Outside FINRA offices in New York. (Photo: Ronald Pechtimaldjian)
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority hearing panel permanently barred on Monday a Miami broker for continuing to conduct business while serving a three-month suspension.
The hearing panel expelled Bruce Martin Zipper as well as his firm, Dakota Securities, from FINRA membership for not adequately supervising Zipper, and "allowing him to associate while suspended (and later while statutorily disqualified) and for falsifying books and records."
The hearing panel decision resolves charges brought by FINRA's Department of Enforcement in November 2017.
In April 2016, Zipper entered into a settlement with FINRA enforcement, agreeing to pay a $5,000 fine and serve a three-month suspension for failing to disclose three outstanding judgments.
At the time, Zipper was a principal at a Dakota Securities, a small broker-dealer that operated as a "one-man shop" where Zipper wore "all the hats."
After agreeing to the settlement, Zipper notified FINRA that he was bringing another broker into his firm to conduct firm business during his suspension, the broker-dealer self-regulator states.
However, after his suspension commenced in May 2016, "Zipper never stopped his association with Dakota as Zipper continued soliciting Dakota customers, doing business with the firm's clearing broker, and generally operating the firm," FINRA states.
