FINRA barred former Madison Avenue Securities (San Diego, CA) broker David Lloyd Barber after finding he exercised discretion and effected unauthorized trades in customer accounts.
The bar follows a 2016 customer dispute, which resulted in a $2 million arbitration award, that alleged excessive, unsuitable and unauthorized trading; churning; breach of fiduciary duty; and failure to supervise.
The investments associated with these allegations included Chesapeake Energy, Westport Innovations Inc., Pacific Drilling SA Luxembourg, BP Capital Twinline Energy Fund, GoPro, and Twitter.
According to FINRA, Barber (CRD #1165082) allegedly engaged in discretionary trading in customer accounts without written authorization, and then refused to cooperate with FINRA's investigation into the allegations.
The 2016 dispute, which evolved into arbitration in San Diego, produced an award of $2,186,492.30, with the arbitration panel finding Barber and Madison Avenue Securities both solely and jointly liable for an amalgam of compensatory and punitive damages related to allegations of excessive trading and churning, unauthorized trading, unsuitable trading, breach of fiduciary duty, and failure to supervise.
In 2013, FINRA suspended Barber, fining him $25,000 for improperly borrowing $867,000 from customers at Barber's then-firm, Raymond James & Associates of Newport Beach.
Raymond James discharged Barber after he similarly refused to cooperate with the firm's investigation into allegations that he misappropriated funds from a client. Raymond James also determined that Barber failed to disclose an outside business activity and violated the firm's selling away policies.
After his termination from Raymond James, Barber joined First Midwest Securities (also of Newport Beach), before moving to Madison Avenue Securities in 2015, where he remained until 2018.
If you have invested with Southern California broker David Lloyd Barber or with any registered representative or financial adviser who has churned or excessively traded your account, or has sold investments away from the supervisory oversight of a FINRA-member firm in contravention of policy, and these instances of misconduct have proven harmful to your financial interests, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.