FINRA expelled Phoenix-based Lawson Financial Corporation, Inc. and barred President and CEO Robert Warren Lawson for securities fraud in selling millions of dollars of municipal revenue bonds to firm customers, including bonds related to an Arizona charter school and two Alabama assisted living facilities.
The report states that Lawson and the firm were aware that the Arizona school and Alabama facilities, which were all borrowers on the bonds, faced financial difficulties, but that Lawson nonetheless transferred millions of dollars to the borrowers from a deceased customer's trust account for which Lawson served as trustee, in order to hide the borrower's poor financial condition.
In addition to charging Robert Lawson with misusing customer funds, investigators found that both Lawson and wife Pamela breached their fiduciary duties as trustees by engaging in self-dealing within the trust account; Pamela received a two-year suspension and $30,000 fine in a separate FINRA action.
If you have invested with Robert Lawson or with any broker or financial adviser whose breach of fiduciary duty and misuse of funds—such as transferring or misappropriating funds out of your trust or another investment account—has 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.
News Release: FINRA Expels Lawson Financial and Bars CEO Robert Lawson for Fraudulent Municipal Bond Sales (FINRA)