Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Personal Injury Law Blogs -> New York City Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury Law

: New York City Personal Injury Lawyer

Maximum Financial Investment Group Inc.

By Oguz Ozdemir

On August 21, 2009, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) expelled an investment company out of Southfield, Michigan. Maximum Financial Investment Group, Inc. was sited for numerous violations set by FINRA as the company moved into forex trading and repeatedly ignored warnings from FINRA.

In addition, Christopher T. Paganes, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Compliance Officer for the company was not only suspended for nine months, he was permanently barred from ever serving as a principal in a securities firm.

The problems began when Maximum decided to get involved in forex trading without getting the appropriate approval from FINRA. Forex trading has become more and more popular and it is mentioned just about everywhere on the internet.

Forex trading is basically the trading of foreign currency. One country uses their currency to buy the currency of another country in the hopes of making a profit. Forex trading is available online from Sunday through Friday evening and the convenience of being able to engage in trading 24/7 has made this a very popular type of short term investing.

Maximum began working with an agent that was not registered with FINRA as it began forex trading. At one point, between January 2008 to May 2008 Maximum had deposited over $15 million in customer funds that were supposed to be used for forex trading. The company did not report these funds on their own records and as a result fell short of their own amount of minimum net capital it was required to have.

As if that wasn't enough, FINRA found that they did not calculate the amount that they needed to keep in a separate bank account on behalf of their forex customers. They did not have any procedures in place to ensure that the funds that they were receiving were not from laundered money.

And after many warnings, Maximum failed to file an application with FINRA that showed that they were changing their business to forex trading. They increased their representatives by 180% without clearing it with FINRA first and even after being warned by FINRA they let the reps stay on and work another two months.

In the end Maximum switched all of its assets to a registered FINRA broker but again, failed to notify FINRA in advance. The company and the broker both accepted the findings of FINRA but would not admit or deny the charges.

When an investment company decides to do whatever they want without adhering to the rules and regulations set by FINRA it is bad enough. But when they disregard blatant warnings and continue the violations it is as if they feel that they are above the law.

Their negligence in keeping proper records and accounts put their customers' investments at risk. If you have been a victim of securities fraud or suffered as a result of a negligent broker, please call Napoli Bern Ripka and we may be able to help you. The consultation is free and so is the phone call: 1-888-LAW-IN-NY.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Oguz Ozdemir

Full post as published by New York City Personal Injury Lawyer on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).