A former broker for Charles Schwab & Co.was fined $5,000 and suspended for 90 days by Finra for lying to Schwab about a CEO Fraud attack in which he wired nearly $800,000 to someone impersonating one of his customers.
Deming Payne, who resigned from Schwab in September 2017 after admitting that he violated firm policy regarding the documentation of outbound calls, is no longer employed in the securities industry.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., in its letter of acceptance, waiver and consent, said that in August 2017, Mr. Payne received requests via email from an individual posing as a customer to process eight wire transfers from the customer's account.
In total, wire transfers totaling $794,860 were made in response to the imposter's requests, Finra said.
It said that Mr. Payne failed to obtain verbal verification of the instructions from the actual customer, who was unaware of the imposter's requests, even though the requests presented several red flags. OUCH.
Story at Investmentnews: https://www.investmentnews.com/article/20190111/FREE/190119981/finra-punishes-former-schwab-broker-for-lying-about-role-in-800000