A Merrill Lynch broker in Los Angeles will be permitted to have a client complaint expunged from her record as the result of an arbitration decision, Advisor Hub reports.
A panel of three Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitrators ruled in favor of junior advisor Ariana I. Olive in a case involving a dispute with one of her clients. In March 2024, the client claimed that Olive had misappropriated funds, an allegation she said was not true.
“The FA denies the claims asserted and believes that they are without merit,” Olive had written in a comment appended to her BrokerCheck record. Merrill Lynch had closed the complaint without taking any action.
After Olive took the case to arbitration, the FINRA arbitrators determined that the client’s claim was “factually impossible or clearly erroneous.” The award also cited the testimony of Jaymie Wetzel, a leader in the Merrill Lynch Advisor Development Program, that was said to have confirmed the funds were not misappropriated.
A state securities regulator did not oppose the expungement of the complaint. The client involved in the dispute did not take part in the arbitration hearing. Olive represented herself in the matter, paying hearing session fees of $2,300.
Olive said her petition must still be finalized in court. The AdvisorHub report notes that there have been fewer expungement awards issued since FINRA adopted reforms in October 2023 aimed at making it more difficult for brokers to expunge client disputes from their records.
They were developed in response to concerns that it had become too easy for brokers to clear customer complaints from their disciplinary history contained in the Central Registration Depository. The number of standalone expungement requests was reported to have declined by nearly 80%.
The attorneys at Hyman Cotter PC have considerable experience with FINRA’s procedures for expunging false, defamatory and erroneous disclosures from a registered representative’s record. If you have any concerns about problematic disclosures on your CRD record or those that are viewable on FINRA’s BrokerCheck portal, contact Hyman Cotter PC at (866) 435-2031 or through our online contact form for a free consultation.
