- Summary:
- Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. ordered to pay $347,000 to Laguna Financial Group
- Former chief compliance officer of the firm secretly established her own business to compete with LFG while still working at LFG
- The three-person Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. arbitration panel found Schwab liable for $200,000 in compensatory damages, $47,001.12 in costs and $100,000 in attorneys’ fees
“Finra arbitrators ordered Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. to pay $347,000 to the owner of a registered investment advisory firm for allegedly helping a former official of the RIA lure millions of dollars of assets to her own advisory firm.”
“This case involved business and ethical violations by Charles Schwab in its capacity as a broker-dealer firm administering custodial platform services to an RIA,” Robert J. Girard II, founding partner of the Girard Bengali law firm and an attorney for Mr. Ziomek and LFG, said in a statement. “Schwab lied about its involvement and took advantage of LFG’s reliance on Schwab’s supposed good faith dealings. While Schwab profited from this misplaced trust, the Finra panel administered the appropriate justice.”
Source: https://www.investmentnews.com/article/20190806/FREE/190809962/finra-arbitrators-order-schwab-to-pay-347000-to-ria-owner-for
