The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) licenses and regulates the stock brokerage industry. It requires stock brokerage firms and their stock brokers to be qualified, registered, and approved by the agency before they may offer and sell securities to the public. FINRA also requires its registrants to immediately report regulatory events, such as suspensions, fines, and customer complaints, against the firm and broker. FINRA maintains a database of investor complaints and disciplinary and employment history for registered representatives and publishes some of this information on its BrokerCheck website, www.brokercheck.finra.org. The FINRA BrokerCheck is purportedly useful for predicting future broker misconduct. Unfortunately, not all customer complaints are accurately or completely reported on the website. We are seeking investors with information about Oppenheimer and Co., Inc. broker Jamie J. Cosculluela to determine whether the reported information on the FINRA BrokerCheck website is accurate and complete.
FINRA reports that Mr. Cosculluela has been registered in the securities industry since 2002. Over the years, he has been registered with 4 brokerage firms: Popular Securities Inc., UBS Financial Services Inc., UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico and, most recently, Oppenheimer and Co. During that period, the FINRA BrokerCheck report indicates that Mr. Cosculluela has been the subject of 16 Customer Disputes, 10 of which were pending as of August 17, 2016.
There are 5 customer disputes with allegations of unsuitable investment recommendations, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, violation of FINRA rules, and failure to supervise that have supposedly settled for amounts ranging from $30,000 to $650,000. One customer dispute was rejected by the brokerage firm and supposedly no further action was taken by the customer. There were 10 pending arbitrations reportedly involving Mr. Cosculluela for allegedly making misrepresentations and unsuitable investment recommendations involving Puerto Rico municipal bonds and closed-end funds while he was employed at UBS Financial Services. We believe that Mr. Cosculluela's employers may have not accurately or completely reported all of the Customer Disputes involving him and request that all investors with complaints against Mr. Cosculluela contact our office immediately.
The most important of investors' rights is the right to be informed! We intend to notify FINRA of any and all unreported or inaccurate customer complaints against this firm and/or broker. This blog post is by the Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce, P.A., located in Boca Raton, Florida. For over 35 years, Attorney Pearce has tried, arbitrated, and mediated hundreds of disputes involving complex securities, commodities and investment law issues. The lawyers at our law firm are devoted to protecting investors' rights throughout the United States and internationally! Please visit our website, www.secatty.com, post a comment, call (800) 732-2889, or email Mr. Pearce at pearce@rwpearce.com for answers to any of your questions about this blog post and/or any related matter.