FINRA barred former Lincoln Financial Advisors Corporation and Accelerated Capital Group (Irvine, CA) broker Jason Michael Belajack for creating fictitious letters on firm letterhead to cover up the fact that Belajack had provided inaccurate information to an elderly customer concerning features of a variable annuity (VA) contract he sold to that customer while associated with Accelerated Capital Group (ACG). Belajack's is the latest in a string of disciplinary actions the national regulator has imposed against ACG representatives.
The findings state that Belajack (CRD #5870019) sold the VA contract to a 74-year-old client at ACG and inaccurately informed his client—in response to the customer's question about the VA—that the contract offered both a principal protection feature and a guaranteed annual interest rate of 7%, neither of which were true.
FINRA found that, rather than come clean about the interest rate guarantee and principal protection feature (or lack thereof), Belajack "took steps to cover it up," using Lincoln Financial letterhead to create fictitious correspondence to suggest that the VA company had provided firm representatives with false information, as opposed to admitting that Belajack himself had provided his client with erroneous info.
The AWC states that Belajack later admitted to knowingly sending the fabricated letters to his elderly customer in an effort to cover up his earlier misstatements.
This is not the first disciplinary issue to plague Belajack's BrokerCheck report concerning a non-genuine document. Prior to his 2016 discharge from Lincoln Financial concerning the VA contract misstatements and coverup letters, two prior employer firms filed separation disclosures.
In December 2012, then-employer LPL Financial LLC of Newport Beach discharged Belajack after becoming aware that he had submitted a non-genuine client signature on a life insurance application-related document. Earlier that year, City of Industry's Pruco Securities permitted Belajack to resign following allegations concerning the same non-genuine life insurance application signature.
Belajack's BrokerCheck report also lists prior employment from 2015-2016 at a fine dining restaurant called "The Hobbit" located in Orange, California. ACG still lists the barred Belajack as a member of the firm's Wealth Management team alongside financial advisor Sammy Dexter Legaspi, who FINRA recently fined and suspended for keeping a supply of blank forms in his office with pre-filled customer signatures. FINRA also found that Sam Legaspi photocopied some of these forms in order to re-use the investors' signatures.
In 2016, FINRA barred ACG's Bahram Mirhashemi for churning and excessive trades in customer accounts. Like the barred Belajack, Mirhashemi is also still listed as a Senior Wealth Manager on ACG's website.
In 2014, FINRA fined Accelerated Capital Group itself $32,500 for fabricated testimonials and a series of misleading statements that appeared in the firm's communications materials, including on the firm's website. ACG list mailing addresses in the cities of Costa Mesa, California, Scottsdale, Arizona, and near Salt Lake City, Utah.
If you have invested with former Lincoln Financial Advisors Corporation and Accelerated Capital Group (ACG) broker Jason Michael Belajack in Orange County, with any of ACG's previously disciplined representatives including Sam Legaspi and Bahram Mirhashemi, or with any broker or financial adviser whose misstatements, fabricated documents, or attempts to cover up inaccurate information 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.