Just weeks after facing $2.6 million in fines by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) over sales of collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), broker/dealer Brookstone Securities has closed up shop.
Last month, a FINRA arbitration panel fined Brookstone $1 million, as well as ordered the firm, its majority owner and ex-chief executive, Antony Lee Turbeville, and a broker, Christopher Kline, to pay $1.62 million in restitution to elderly clients who bought the risky CMOs in question.
According to the FINRA panel who rendered the decision, Brookstone Securities made “fraudulent misrepresentation and omissions of material fact in selling complex, esoteric and risky tranches of [CMOs] to unsophisticated, elderly and retired investors.”
In shuttering its operations, Brookstone Securities also reportedly failed to pay nearly 200 of its affiliated reps and advisers, according to a June 15 story by Investment News.
Brookstone Securities is headquartered in Lakeland,Fla.; in 2011, the firm reported $27.3 million in total revenue.