An Oklahoma financial advisor accused of impersonating clients during phone calls has been penalized by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Financial Advisor reports.
According to a letter of acceptance, waiver and consent, Chad M. Rogers was fined $5,000 and suspended for 45 days by FINRA. The matter involves calls allegedly made by Rogers to assist in transferring clients’ accounts from his former firm, Onesco, to IFP Securities, the firm he joined in 2022, or to initial transfers to their external bank accounts.
FINRA determined that between August 2022 and June 2023, while associated with IFP, Rogers impersonated 14 customers during 22 phone calls to his prior firm seeking to have his customers’ accounts transferred to IFP or transfer funds to the customers’ bank accounts. Although the customers consented to transferring their accounts or funds, FINRA said, none of them gave Rogers permission to impersonate them during these calls.
He was thus found to have violated FINRA Rule 2010, which requires members in the conduct of their business. to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.
In September 2023, IFP filed a Uniform Termination Notice (Form U5) for Rogers disclosing that he had been terminated after the firm was notified by a third party that Rogers had impersonated clients with personal information via phone call.
Rogers did not admit or deny the allegations but accepted and consented to FINRA’s findings.
According to FINRA, Rogers said clients asked for his assistance after the firm changed account numbers and threatened to turn the accounts over to the state of Oklahoma as unclaimed accounts.
In a note on BrokerCheck, Rogers said some of the clients had been told their accounts were being transferred to the Oklahoma Unclaimed Property Fund. “Accordingly, I contacted my previous firm by phone to assist such clients with securing the information necessary to facilitate the requested transactions,” he said. But he did acknowledge that impersonating them represented violations of the internal policies of IFP Securities, as well as FINRA rules and Oklahoma regulations.
“No clients were disadvantaged or harmed in any way as a consequence of my actions,” Rogers stated. “In over 22 years in the industry, I have never received a customer complaint.”
In May 2024. the Oklahoma Department of Securities fined Rogers $5,000 and suspended him for nine months over the same matter.
Rogers’s attorney, Jeanette Timmons of Steptoe & Johnson, did not respond with a comment prior to publication.
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