Linda Louise Johnson, a Registered Rep in Roscoe, IL, with Associated Investment Services, was fined $5,000 and suspended for 6 months, for opening joint accounts for customers by cutting and pasting their signatures onto account documents.  She then transfered mutual fund shares into the account - all without customers' knowledge and consent.  Ms. Johnson had a registered sales assistant aid and abet her scheme by executing a “Signature Guarantee” for the customers’ signatures on the account transfer forms - after Johnsonrepresented that she witnessed the customers sign the documents, which she knew was not true.

Ms. Johnson also affixed one of the customer’s signature on a Letter of Instruction directing  a member firm to sell $25,000 worth of the mutual fund that the customer owned, and forward the proceeds to Johnson.  FINRA found that, while the customer authorized the transaction, Johnson affixed the customer’s signature to the document without the customer’s knowledge or consent, and bypassed her firm’s internal procedures requiring its operations department to review the document prior to submission to the mutual fund.  FINRA also found that Johnson altered portions of an IRA Distribution Request Form that another customer had completed by changing the date and dollar amount on the form;  she then submitted the altered form for a distribution of funds.  Finally, FINRA determined that while the customer authorized the distribution of funds, Johnson altered the form without the customer’s knowledge and consent.  This is FINRA Case #2010021494801.   [April 2011 Disc. Action]