Silver Law Group Investigates FINRA-barred Florida Broker Who Allegedly Sold Away Customers

Silver Law Group is investigation former Florida-based Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC (CRD# 7784) broker Michael J. DeBoer (CRD# 2114067) for allegedly conducting outside business activities without notifying Fidelity and losing his customers a great deal of money in the process.

According to DeBoer’s FINRA BrokerCheck, FINRA permanently barred DeBoer in May 2016 for allegedly recommending two customers collectively invest $200,000 in securities offered by a software development company.  In exchange for the referrals, the company allegedly gave DeBoer $32,000 in compensation, while the customers ultimately lost all of their investments.

Additionally, the Acceptance, Waiver & Consent (“AWC”), found that DeBoer marketed to his customers and other potential investors the services of an entity that provided separately-managed futures trading accounts.  The AWC states that DeBoer referred approximately 28 people to the entity and received $70,000 in return for his referrals.  Most of the referred individuals lost a substantial amount of the money invested.

For all the aforementioned outside business activities of DeBoer, FINRA alleges that he did not disclose his involvement to Fidelity.

The term “selling away” is used when a broker sells or solicits the sale of securities that are not held or offered by the brokerage firm he or she is associated.  Usually, the investments sought to be sold by the rogue broker are not approved by the employing firm and are often private placements or other alternative investments.

This is an important issue, as our firm sees many cases in which brokerage firms allege they conducted due diligence and the due diligence conducted was inadequate.  In the cases of selling away, you have a rogue broker selling an investment that was either not vetted at all by the employing brokerage firm or was vetted and determined unsuitable for the brokerage firm’s customer base.

Brokers and brokerage firms have a duty to recommend suitable investments to their customers.  This entails ensuring the investment is generally suitable for investment purposes and also suitable for the particular investor, factoring age, investment goal, and other factors.

On top of the duty to recommend suitable investments, a brokerage firm has a duty to supervise its brokers.  The brokerage firm is responsible for the actions of its brokers.

FINRA arbitration is a fast, efficient way to recover your lost investment funds.  We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay us nothing unless we win and recover money for you.

If you have invested with Michael J. DeBoer and Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC and have lost money doing so, you may be able to recover some or all of your losses.  Our lawyers are experienced in recovering investor losses due to broker and brokerage firm misconduct through FINRA arbitration.

Silver Law Group represents the interests of investors who have been the victims of investment fraud.  If you have questions about your legal rights, please contact Scott Silver of the Silver Law Group for a free consultation at ssilver@silverlaw.com or toll free at (800) 975-4345.