FINRA barred former KC Ward Financial broker Craig David Dima for making unauthorized and unsuitable trades totaling $15 million in a 73-year-old client's retirement account, and for making misrepresentations to the customer regarding the reasons for the unauthorized and unsuitable transactions that he executed even after his client explicitly instructed him not to do so.
The report states that Dima (CRD #2314389) purportedly sold "virtually all" of the elderly retiree's 7,543 Colgate-Palmolive stock shares (accumulated during the 73-year-old's 28-year career) without the customer's permission and effected 41 unauthorized Colgate-Palmolive sales on at least 11 occasions, even after the customer explicitly told Dima not to sell the stock because she considered the Colgate-Palmolive holdings a valuable long-term, dividend-producing investment that satisfied her "moderate" risk tolerance and "maximum growth" investment objective.
Even though Dima allegedly engaged in the 41 unsuitable and unauthorized transactions on at least 11 different occasions, he nonetheless misrepresented to his client that the unsuitable sales were caused by a technical snafu or computer glitch.
Investigators also found that Dima charged his elderly client more than $375,000 in mark-ups, mark-downs, ticket charges and other fees related to the unauthorized and unsuitable Colgate-Palmolive sales and furthermore made fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions to his elderly client in an attempt to conceal the unauthorized trading.
FINRA also wrote that the Dima's misconduct deprived his 73-year-old client of approximately $127,000 in dividend payments, and manifested in $72,000-worth of trading losses for the elderly client from several of the transactions, while Dima and his firm netted approximately $372,000 in additional revenue.
Dima's BrokerCheck report indicates several other customer disputes alleging unsuitability and unauthorized trading, including improper use of margin.
If you have invested with former KC Ward rep Craig David Dima or with any financial adviser or broker whose unauthorized and unsuitable trades or fraudulent misrepresentations and concealment of misconduct has proven harmful to your investments or interests, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for investigation and consultation.