FINRA Punishes Former Merrill Lynch Rep for Attempting to Sell Clients’ Personal Info
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority suspended a former Merrill Lynch broker for five months for allegedly attempting to sell the personal information of his Merrill Lynch clients to another registered rep after leaving the firm, according to a letter of acceptance, waiver and consent issued by the regulators.
According to FINRA, Ryan Wallace, while working at Merrill Lynch’s Chandler, Arizona branch office, allegedly took home firm documents including a list of the approximately 100 customers in his book of business, which detailed their names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and the amount of money invested in each customer account.
The information was considered non-public as it was provided to the firm by customers to obtain financial products and services. FINRA said that Wallace understood that he was not allowed to take or possess Merrill Lynch non-public information outside of the scope of his employment at the firm.
After leaving Merrill Lynch, Wallace allegedly offered to sell the information to another registered representative at another FINRA member firm for $10,000. FINRA says that he emailed documents containing the non-public personal information of 42 Merrill Lynch customer accounts to entice the rep to purchase it.
FINRA believes that Wallace violated FINRA Rule 2010, which pertains to observing high standards of commercial honor, and he was suspended from associating with any FINRA member for five months and issued a $10,000 fine.
Wallace is not currently registered with any FINRA member firm and does not have any relevant formal disciplinary history with the Securities and Exchange Commission, any self-regulatory organization or any state securities regulator. He accepted and signed the AWC letter without admitting or denying the findings.
