FINRA fined and suspended broker Luis Felipe Gil, formerly of HSBC Securities' and MKM Partners' San Francisco, CA branches, for engaging in securities activity without being properly licensed and registered.
Investigators found that after becoming associated with HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. in September 2014 as a non-registered fingerprinter, Gil (CRD #5644467) entered into a customer equity order—he entered 87 orders in total without being properly registered—prior to achieving certification and licensure at HSBC in Northern California.
FINRA also wrote that at the time he entered these 87 orders, Gil knew he was not properly registered.
In a reply to HSBC's 2015 decision to discharge him based on the aforementioned NASD conduct violation, Gil explained that he was previously licensed with RIM Securities LLC, a prior San Francisco-area firm he associated with from 2012-13, and had already passed the Series 7 and 63 exams. Although, according to the AWC, HSBC hired Gil as a non-registered fingerprint person, Gil in his Broker Comment admitted that he accepted and executed client orders "within a few days" of joining HSBC in September 2014, and "before my licenses were transferred to HSBC."
During the license transfer process, HSBC Compliance Staff determined that Gil's Series 7 license/exam had expired due to a lack of continuing education, and that his Series 63 portion of a required exam had not been properly registered. Gil subsequently alleged that RIM had failed to properly register his Series 63 results.
Gil also alleged that HSBC opted to dismiss him so as to avoid taking on any additional "legal risks in the face of all of the other regulatory issues that they had been facing." Subsequently hired by MKM Partners, FINRA noted that Gil was terminated from MKM in May 2016 when FINRA opened the present investigation into Gil's misconduct.
If you have invested with Luis Felipe Gil or with any broker or financial adviser who engaged in securities transactions without proper registration or licensure, or with a firm that allowed one of its representatives to perform such activities without appropriate registration, and this misconduct has proven harmful to your investments, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.