Securities & Stock Broker Fraud Blog
Miller Stern Lawyers – 410-Law-Firm is currently investigating clients of Ex Ameriprise Broker Angel Bardeche CRD4698117 and all firms and broker dealers who may be victims of, and suffered damages and losses, due to abuses such as flipping “A” Shares, mutual fund abuses, unsuitable mutual fund investments and failure to supervise, breach of fiduciary duty, overcharging , and unauthorized trading.
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined and suspended a former Ameriprise Financial broker in Cincinnati, Ohio, who allegedly generated $450,000 in commissions from unsuitable mutual fund switches over two years, according to FINRA and Advisor Hub. Ms. Bardeche agreed to a nine-month suspension and $10,000 fine as well as $5,000 in disgorgement to resolve Finra’s allegations of costly mutual fund trading, according to a letter of settlement.
Between January 2017 and March 2019, Bardeche recommended 112 short-term ‘switches’ of Class A mutual funds in 32 customer accounts, Finra said. Class A funds carry large up-front sales charges and “are generally only suitable as long-term investments.”
“Respondent did not have a reasonable basis to believe that this recommended pattern of switching and short-term liquidations of mutual fund Class A shares was suitable for customers,” Finra said in noting her violation of its suitability rule and 2010 “catch all” rule requiring “high standards of commercial honor.”
In some cases, Bardeche also made “costly back-to-back” switches, including recommending one customer sell Class A shares after 10 months, incurring $3,100 in new sales charges. Eight months later, Bardeche recommended the customer sell those shares and buy other Class A shares that cost over $2,600 in commissions, Advisor hub said.
Finra separately said Bardeche made 109 trades in eight non-discretionary customer accounts without prior written authorization during the two-year period.
Since 2019, Ameriprise has paid $380,000 in settlements to four of Bardeche’s former customers, according to BrokerCheck, which notes that the broker did not contribute to the amount.
Finra said it began investigating Bardeche based on Ameriprise’s U5 filing in April 2019. The firm fired her for “company policy violations related to failing to obtain authorization from clients prior to placing trades and mutual fund trading activity,” according to BrokerCheck.
Bardeche said in a comment appended to her BrokerCheck record that the discharge was “unjustified” and “strongly” disputed the alleged violations, according to her CRD.
“I have always discussed every transaction with every client, prior to execution,” the broker wrote. “I dispute the assertion that I violated company policy concerning mutual fund trading activity; I thoroughly discussed every mutual fund transaction made on behalf of a client, and completed firm documentation reflecting the purposes of each such transaction.”
Miller Stern Lawyers, LLC, a Baltimore Securities Law firm, currently represents investors for claims of investment losses from unauthorized trading, over concentration, irregular options trading, margin and unsuitability claims, broker fraud, securities fraud, securities litigation and other broker and broker/dealers for investment losses and fraud. If you or anyone you know have experienced investment losses from the actions above or other situations, please call 410-LAW-FIRM ( 410-529-3476 ) or fill out the contact us form for a no cost consultation and evaluation of your claim