FINRA suspended former HSBC Securities (Pasadena, CA) broker Daniel Kahhong Liang and fined him $5,000 for falsifying multiple documents, including modifying several items after customers had signed the previously-unaltered documents. FINRA also sanctioned Liang for allowing customers to sign blank or incomplete Mutual Fund Disclosure and Investment Acknowledgment Forms.
The findings state that Liang falsified seven documents on behalf of multiple customers by changing the title of some accounts and by altering bills and statements through improper name and address changes, such as changing several customers' P.O. Box addresses to residential ones to give the appearance that those customers had bills mailed to residential addresses instead of PO Boxes, as was HSBC Bank policy.
FINRA found that Liang purportedly made these changes after his customer had signed the mislabeled documents in contravention of firm policy and FINRA rules.
The charges additionally include the allegation that Liang permitted several HSBC Securities customers to sign blank or incomplete Mutual Fund Disclosure and Investment Acknowledgement Forms in contravention of HSBC compliance procedures that prohibited a representative "request that a customer sign a blank, incomplete, or backdated document" or "accept a blank, incomplete, or backdated document from a customer."
Liang's BrokerCheck report indicates that HSBC Securities terminated him after learning of the ethics violations.
If you have invested with Daniel Kahhong Liang of HSBC Securities' Pasadena, California branch, or with any broker or investment advisor whose request that you sign incomplete, backdated or blank forms, or whose subsequent improper alteration of said documents have proven harmful to your investments or interests, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for investigation and consultation.