As part of its crackdown on brokers and investment advisers who fail to disclose all manner of misconduct, FINRA fined and suspended former Centaurus Financial broker George William Magladry for failing to disclose felony charges entered against him in Northern California.
According to FINRA's report (AWC #2019064239301), prosecutors in San Joaquin County, California charged George Magladry (CRD #1774860) with two felony counts of making criminal threats, with Magladry entering a no contest plea to one of the felony charges in 2019.
FINRA rules prohibit brokers from filing misleading, inaccurate, or incomplete information, and failing to report a felony thus violates the rules.
Investigators thus concluded that Maglardy "willfully failed" to disclose the felony charges by failing to accurately answer in a timely manner the FINRA form disclosure questions, "Have you ever been charged with any felony?" and "Have you ever been convicted or pled guilty or nolo contendere ('no contest') in a domestic or foreign court to any felony?".
Prior to his 2018-19 association with Centaurus Financial, Magladry was registered with NPB Financial Group in Gardnerville, Nevada.
For some brokers, failing to disclose a felony charge or other criminal or civil activity may indicate a pattern of misbehavior, or, as the California Department of Insurance referred to ex-Centaurus Financial and Brookstreet Securities Corporation (Newport Beach, CA) stockbroker Tiffany Ann De Ruosi aka Tiffany Rigali's failure to disclose a criminal conviction and guilty plea to child endangerment and driving under the influence, a "demonstrated present or potential unfitness."
In Rigali's case, her failure to disclose a felony charge on FINRA's form coincided with several other instances of securities misconduct, including breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent misrepresentation, and negligence, which resulted in a settlement that exceeded $1 million.
If you have invested with any broker or financial adviser who failed to disclose past misconduct—such as felony charges or financial malfeasance—and such disclosure failures preceded a harmful investment relationship resulting in losses or other damages, 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.