FINRA filed a complaint against former IFS Securities (Grass Valley, CA) broker Steven Douglas Schisler, alleging the Northern California stockbroker made unsuitable recommendations to elderly customers, participated in a private securities transaction without approval from IFS, and engaged in additional misconduct such as failing to disclose an arbitration filed by one of the senior customers and lying to FINRA investigators.
According to Disciplinary Proceeding #2018058718601, Steven Schisler (CRD #2367961) "engaged in a long pattern of unethical business conduct," including persuading an elderly, retired, married couple to invest $300,000 in a promissory note, which FINRA deemed an unsuitable investment.
FINRA Enforcement discovered the $300k investment comprised a substantial portion of the couple's retirement savings that they were dependent on to pay down considerable debt, and that one of the issuers of the note had previously been barred from the securities industry for defrauding investors.
The complaint states that, unsurprisingly, when the $300,000 note came due, the issuer defaulted, resulting in a lawsuit that Schisler willfully failed to disclose despite repeated instructions from IFS to do so.
FINRA also noted that even after one half of the retired couple died, Schisler nonetheless insisted the promissory note investment was a "personal loan" and furthermore maintained that he was unaware the customers had made the investment.
Digging deeper, investigators found that several years prior, Schisler solicited another elderly retired customer to lend him $50,000 in the form of a promissory note, secured by mortgaged property that Schisler defaulted on just days after issuing the note to this client.
FINRA found that Schisler failed to repay the $50,000 principal for more than six years after the note matured.
Making recordkeeping more difficult, Schisler allegedly used non-firm email accounts to communicate with customers regarding securities-related business, causing his firm to fail to preserve required books and records and violating FINRA rules.
Schisler's BrokerCheck lists an additional business activity/dba of Synergy Wealth Management LLC.
If you have invested with broker Steven Douglas Schisler, formerly of IFS Securities in Grass Valley (Nevada County, California) or with any investment adviser whose unsuitable recommendations or solicitation of a promissory note issued by a barred individual or otherwise sold away from a FINRA-member firm in contravention of industry rules has proven harmful to your financial interests, please call an experienced FINRA arbitration attorney at The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.
All information in the above post was verified as accurate at the time of posting. We invite readers and the subject(s) of the posting to contact us with new or updated information.