FINRA fined and suspended Whitehall-Parker Securities (San Rafael, California) principal Robert James Yuloo and censured the firm for failing to reasonably supervise electronic communications amongst its associates while also failing to reasonably review and document an outside business activity that was, in reality, a Ponzi scheme.
According to AWC #2017052705802, Robert Yuloo (CRD #1303331) as Whitehall-Parker's President, Chief Compliance Officer, and CEO failed to to review a registered representative's sales of nearly $1.5 million in promissory notes relating to the Woodbridge Group of Companies, which FINRA and SEC officials ultimately determined was a fraudulent $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
In addition to Whitehall-Parker Securities' San Rafael location, BrokerCheck indicates the firm has additional branch offices in Dixon and Walnut Creek, CA.
In 2019, FINRA fined and suspended Whitehall-Parker stockbroker James Marten Lamont for selling $1.5 million in Woodbridge promissory notes. Lamont is a broker with a history of disclosures including settled customer complaints alleging misrepresentation, fraud, negligence, unsuitable recommendations, and omission of material fact.
Not only does FINRA's AWC against Yuloo and Whitehall-Parker claim the firm failed to supervise its broker, FINRA further alleges that "he disclosed Woodbridge as an outside business activity on multiple occasions to the firm and disclosed that he was receiving compensation from Woodbridge."
In other words, according to FINRA, this isn't simply a case of a firm not knowing about its broker's activities which turned out to be fraudulent: the findings state that the Woodbridge outside business activity had been disclosed, and yet Whitehall-Parker purportedly failed to reasonably review and document it.
FINRA also cited Yuloo and Whitehall-Parker for failing to reasonably supervise electronic communication and failing to enforce a reasonable supervisory system regarding email review. Investigators cited statistics indicating the firm reviewed just 0.27% of all e-mails that had been specifically flagged for review and, accordingly, the firm failed to act on more than 800 e-mails related to Woodbridge.
Even so, investigators found that Yuloo did review 97 e-mails related to Woodbridge that should have alerted Yuloo to the fact of the selling away activity involving the Woodbridge promissory note private securities transactions, yet Yuloo purportedly failed to respond appropriately.
If you have invested with Whitehall-Parker Securities or with its principal broker, investment adviser, and CEO Robert James Yuloo or with any other registered representative or firm that failed to review or supervise a broker involved in fraud or a Ponzi scheme, such as James Lamont's selling away activity of fraudulent Woodbridge Group of Companies promissory notes, and this misconduct has proven harmful to your investments or 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.