The SEC permanently barred JP Turner & Co. brokers Ralph Christopher Calabro, Jason Ivan Konner, and Dimitrios Koutsoubos for willfully churning customer accounts and ordered fines and disgorgement totaling over $800,000.
Though the SEC initiated proceedings against the brokers in 2012, their permanent bars did not become final until 2015. For instance, Koutsoubos left JP Turner for Caldwell International Securities in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he remained until May 2014.
The Commission's proceeding states that each broker controlled at least one client's account—including one owned by an elderly retired man—and engaged in excessive trading in the controlled account(s) which was inconsistent with the customers' conservative investment objectives, resulting in approximately $845,000 in commissions.
According to his BrokerCheck report, Calabro left JP Turner in 2011 and eased into National Securities Corporation, where he remained until December 2013. His disclosure record reflects a handful of settled customer complaints for charges of churning, excessive trading, suitability violations, unauthorized trading, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, and making false or misleading statements. The eight awards granted to Calabro's former clients total $5.4 million.
Konner's BrokerCheck report indicates he most recently registered with DPEC Capital, Inc. and remained with DPEC until 2014. In addition to termination disclosures from JP Turner and previous employer Millenco, the report indicates several customer disputes alleging unauthorized and excessive trading, churning, unsuitable recommendations, misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty, with granted damages exceeding $175,000.
Koutsoubos' record indicates a three-year registration at Las Vegas, Nevada's Caldwell International Securities from 2011-2014, after which he moved to Southeast Investments, N.C. before departing that firm in June 2015. A settled dispute on Koutsoubos' disclosure list includes allegations of excessive trading, unsuitable recommendations, unauthorized trading, misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty.
If you have invested with Ralph Calabro, Jason Ivan Konner, Dimitrios Koutsobos, or with any broker or financial adviser who has engaged in churning, excessive/unauthorized trading or unsuitable recommendations that have proven harmful to your investments or interests, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.