Geoff presented a webinar for the Boston Bar Association on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 titled, FINRA Rules 8210, 9552 and the Extraordinary Circumstances Required by the SEC to Merit Remand.
Prior to barring a securities broker for life FINRA needs to demonstrate that the broker had actual notice of its Rule 8210 and 9552 notices and communications. In the instant case, FINRA requested a Massachusetts broker’s cooperation regarding some individual tax liens. FINRA’s 8210 requests went unanswered by the broker and soon enough FINRA, growing increasingly impatient with the nonresponsive broker, initiated Rule 9552 suspension proceedings and eventually barred the broker for life. However, unbeknownst to FINRA, the respondent had been nonresponsive because he had been hospitalized due to a serious health issue.
This program focused on the significant procedural and legal hurdles the broker had to overcome to convince the SEC to remand this matter back to FINRA for that regulator to explain why a lifetime bar was appropriate and how the broker was able to convince FINRA to drop their bar.
