A former financial representative for Northwestern Mutual Investment Services who was found to have submitted a false exam score report has been barred from the industry, according to Think Advisor.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority took the action against St. Louis-based Willnard Love, who worked for Northwestern Mutual for less than three years before being dismissed in June 2024.
FINRA’s Office of Hearing Officers decided that Love “is barred from associating with any FINRA member firm in any capacity for making false and misleading statements and submitting a falsified examination score report to his firm. Respondent is also ordered to pay costs.”
The matter dates back to January 2023, when the hearing panel said Love failed the FINRA registration examination that was required by his firm, but instead told his supervisor he had passed it.
“When his firm informed him that his official score report showed that he had failed, he agreed to provide the firm with the passing score report he claimed he received from the testing center,” the FINRA panel said. “After a delay of more than two weeks, he produced an altered passing score report. A FINRA test-security investigation ensued.”
Following the investigation, FINRA’s Department of Enforcement alleged that Love violated FINRA Rule 2010 by submitting a falsified test score report and lying to his firm. Included among the evidence was the finding by an investigator that ink saturation and text spacing differed between the report that Love provided and the official report.
After Love denied the charges, a hearing was scheduled in the case. Love represented himself in the first three pre-hearing conferences but then stopped participating in the proceedings.
According to the hearing panel, Love “admitted he failed the … exam but claimed that he incorrectly, not falsely, told Northwestern he had passed the exam because the proctor gave him an exam score report that said so. Therefore, he asserted, he did not violate FINRA Rule 2010.”
The hearing went on as scheduled and the panel rejected Love’s defense, decided that the evidence sustained the allegations, and imposed the bar.
The panel found that Love had told Northwestern Mutual multiple times he had passed the Securities Industry Essentials exam. “The evidence in this case overwhelmingly establishes that Love knowingly gave Northwestern a false passing score report and then made multiple false and misleading statements to the firm,” the decision says.
The panel added, “the evidence of Love’s bad faith is abundant”, and went on to say, “The Hearing Panel finds additional aggravating factors that merit our consideration. Love has not accepted responsibility for submitting the false score report and making misleading statements to his firm. Love’s misconduct involved numerous acts, including the steps he took to fabricate the passing test score report and the series of false statements he made first to his firm, and then to FINRA in his prepared statement and at his OTR.” (On the Record interview)
Love did not immediately respond to requests for comment by ThinkAdvisor.
The attorneys at Hyman Cotter PC understand the complexities that come with being the subject of a regulatory inquiry by the SEC, FINRA, and other self-regulatory organizations, and we have the experience to guide and advise you through any type of regulatory investigation. If you are the subject of a regulatory proceeding, contact us at 312-291-4600 or through our online contact form for a free consultation.
