Reguators fined and suspended an LPL Financial advisor for allowing reps to electronically sign his name on documents and a former LPL advisor accused of signing for clients.
In one case, the Financial Industrustry Regulatory Authority reported early this month that Timothy William Leveroni, a broker and advisor with LPL in Braintree, Massachusetts, has accepted a two-month suspension and $7,500 fine without admitting or denying FINRA's findings that he permitted registered representatives to electronically sign his name on account documents.
FINRA found that the representatives electronically signed Leveroni's name on customer accounts where he was the representative of record, using a shared email address that he and the other representatives had access to.
"None of the customers complained. The documents included required records of his member firm, including new account applications and account update forms. As a result, Leveroni caused the firm to maintain inaccurate books and records," FINRA states on its BrokerCheck tool.
Leveroni, who has been registered with FINRA since 1977, allowed the registered representatives to falsify his signature on more than 100 documents from May 2020 through March 2021, according to the letter of acceptance, waiver and consent that he signed in January. His two-month suspension starts in March.
In the other case, former LPL advisor Bruce Allen Rathkamp, who resigned from the firm in May 2022 after allegations he electronically signed account documents on behalf of customers, has accepted a $5,000 fine and a four-month suspension from FINRA.
