FINRA Suspends Another Ex-First Standard Rep

Between November 2015 and December 2017, Marzocco "excessively traded three customers' accounts in violation of FINRA Rules 2111 and 2010," according to FINRA. One of the customers incurred losses of $135,800 and paid $53,232 in commissions and fees; the second lost $24,452 and paid $9,647 in commissions and fees; and the third lost $35,989 and paid $18,644 in commissions and fees, the regulator said.

"Marzocco also recommended a significant number of trades using margin in the three customers' accounts," the regulator said, noting he recommended using margin to that first customer even though he was aware that client's "financial circumstances made it unsuitable for him."

Marzocco was aware that customer "funded his investments through, among other things, a home equity line of credit, and that the risk of using margin with those funds exceeded" the client's risk tolerance, according to FINRA.

Former First Standard rep Frank Venturelli was also recently suspended 11 months by FINRA. Before that, ex-First Standard reps Andre Pierre Davis, Michael Leahy, Philip Joseph Sparacino and Gabriel Block were also sanctioned by the regulator.

First Standard "served as a haven for greedy, dishonest agents who traded clients' accounts like sharks in a feeding frenzy," Christopher W. Gerold, chief of the New Jersey Bureau of Securities, said in a statement Nov. 4, around the time the firm withdrew its registration.