Serious allegations lead to termination at Accelerated Capital Group and permanent bar from FINRA
Silver Law Group is investigating allegations against broker Bahram Mirhashemi for unauthorized trades, unsuitable mutual find switching, churning of customer accounts, fraud, elder financial fraud, and several other serious violations.
Mirhashemi has worked in the financial services industry for 18 years and was employed by several firms during that time period. His most recent position was with Accelerated Capital Group in Irvine, California from September of 2012 through January of 2016.
According to his BrokerCheck report, Mirhashemi has five customer complaints, one regulatory action, two terminations, four judgments and one financial disclosure filed against him. It is alleged that he cost his customers more than $815,000 in commissions after churning their accounts.
FINRA reports that he placed 2,000 trades for nine clients and rarely obtained the required authorization before making the transactions. After allegations were filed, Mirhashemi was terminated from his position at Accelerated Capital group.
Additional allegations against Mirhashemi include spreading mutual fund purchases across multiple fund families, excluding his clients from receiving discounted sales charges, and costing them excessive commissions amounting to more than $150,000. He is also accused of wilfully filing untimely, false, and misleading forms with regulators and distributing materially false and misleading communication to his customers.
FINRA initiated an investigation into Mirhashemi’s numerous allegations and when the broker failed to respond to requests for information, he was permanently barred from the industry.
Churning of accounts, one of the violations that he allegedly participated in, involves excessive trading whereby the broker will trade in and out of securities many times over a short period. This investment activity does not benefit the customer and only serves to generate excessive commissions for the broker. Churning falls under the category of securities fraud and according to the FINRA, Mirhashemi’s churning activity resulted in a collective loss of $770,000 and cost his customers more than $665,000 in overall commissions.
It’s also important to note that many of his clients were elderly (above the age of 80), living on fixed incomes, and indicated on their paperwork that they would prefer holding periods of at least one to three years for investments. Mirhashemi, however, sold mutual funds after an average holding period of six months or less, which is considered to be excessive and unsuitable by FINRA.
Elder financial fraud issues such as this take place all too often within the securities industry. The SEC and FINRA have recognized elder financial fraud as a growing problem. Claims against financial advisors frequently include trust and estate issues, excessive trading or the sale of unsuitable alternative investments or insurance products.
If you have invested and lost money with Mirhashemi or any other financial advisor, you may be able to recover some or all of your losses. Our attorneys are experienced and specialize in recovering losses due to the misconduct of trusted financial advisors and specialize in cases of elder financial fraud.
If you have questions about your legal rights or need help, please contact us today for a complimentary consultation with one of our experienced securities arbitration attorneys.