A former longtime Ameriprise Financial broker has agreed to a five-month suspension and a $10,000 fine to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority findings that he recommended investments that weren't in his clients' best interests.
George Snyder IV consented to the FINRA findings, without admitting or denying them, and to the sanctions, which also include disgorgement of nearly $3,700 in commissions, the authority announced last week. The suspension starts on Oct. 21.
The alleged misconduct involved investments in leveraged ETFs, or non-traditional exchange-traded products, which seek to return multiples of the benchmark's performance and typically aren't meant to be held for over a day, as well as crypto mining stocks, FINRA reported.
NT-ETPs aren't typically recommended for retail investors, FINRA noted.
Snyder, whom Ameriprise dismissed in 2022, ending his two decades with the company, violated the "care obligation" requiring broker diligence under the Securities Exchange Act's Regulation Best Interest and FINRA rules, according to the authority. He's not currently registered with FINRA.
From January to August 2022, he recommended that 18 retail customers make 33 purchases of securities without having a sufficient understanding of the associated risks and features, and without analyzing whether they were in the customers' best interests, FINRA found.
