FINRA fined and suspended Cetera Advisors LLC (San Diego, CA branch) representative Iain Patrick Reilly for impersonating clients during phone calls he made from 2013 to 2016 to an insurance company's annuity service department.
According to the report, Reilly (CRD #2197881) impersonated his clients, who held equity indexed annuities with the insurance company, on the phone on four occasions. The investigation states Reilly's calls to the insurance company were intended to obtain information for upcoming meetings, and for documents to help facilitate a mortgage refinance.
FINRA previously fined and suspended Betty Lai Johnson for impersonating a customer in communications with an asset management firm, which investigators said caused an unauthorized liquidation of that customer's 401(k) account. In 2014, FINRA barred former LPL reps Angela Borchardt and Kenneth Schulz for an impersonation scheme that similarly used a strategy of unauthorized account liquidations and transfers.
FINRA's present disciplinary action against Reilly suggested no such liquidation was at work, but regulators nonetheless sought to enforce industry policies pertaining to ethical standards: namely, that impersonating customers is explicitly against the rules.
If you have invested with Iain Patrick Reilly or with any broker or financial adviser who has impersonated you in phone calls to an issuer, insurance company, or other entity and engaged in subsequent unauthorized activity that has resulted in financial damages—such as unauthorized trades and transactions or Borchardt/Schulz-esque liquidations and transfers—please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for investigation and consultation.