A Registered Rep in Bayshore, NY, with about 3 years experience at the time of his alleged violations, settled FINRA charges that he excessively traded in a customer's account that he essentially controlled and directed. FINRA Findings and Allegations of Wrongdoing. As an RR with Aura Financial Services, Miguel Angel Murillo began making a series of cold calls to an individual in early 2008 with promises of better service and higher returns than he currently was receiving.  By May 2008, the individual transferred hisaccount to Aura.  The customer, 60, owned a small auto parts store, and had been a resident of Puerto Rico.  His native language was Spanish and he had limited competency in reading or writing English. At the previous firm, the customer maintained a brokerage account with moderate growth and income investment objectives.  He told Murillo he wanted to set up a conservative retirement account because he was nearing retirement age and could not risk any losses with his funds.  Nevertheless, Murillo had the customer sign precompleted Aura New Account documents, including a margin agreement, that listed the customer's investment objective as speculation and his risk tolerance as aggressive. The Aura new account documents also incorrectly listed customer's annual income as between $100,000 - $199,999, his liquid net worth at $200,000 - $499,999 and his net worth as $1,000,000 - $2,499,999.  In actuality, the customer told Murillo that his income at the time was between around $40,000, his net worth was approximately $500,000, and his liquid net worth was approximately $110,000, comprised of the value of the account he was transferring. The customer, of course, did not fully understand what he was signing.  Customer also initially agreed to transfer only half the account's value to Aura because he needed approximately $50,000 for another upcoming investment transaction.  However, after the new account documents were signed and returned to Aura the entire account, with approximately $110,000 in securities in it, was transferred to Aura.  Murillo almost immediately began trading in customer's account.

• On 5/28/08, he sold 2 mutual funds that came in from the prior firm.
• He used the proceeds to purchase $109,568 worth of securities on margin, generating approximately $4,800 in commission.
• Beginning 6/3/08 and continuing through 6/18/08, Murillo made 14 purchases, on margin, in the account, with an aggregate purchase amount of $391,818.
• Murillo sold twelve stocks for total proceeds of $284,597. Among these transactions was the total liquidation on 6/3/08 of the investments customer had transferred into the account.
• Total commissions for the month of June 2008 generated from the account were about $20,000.

Needless to say, the excessive trading continued unabated.  On or about 8/22/08, customer submitted a complaint to Aura alleging, among other things, that Murillo had failed to follow his instructions.  By the time the firm froze the customer's account on 8/26, the monthly account equity was approximately $40,000.  By the end of September, the account value dropped to $8,000; to $5,032 by the beginning of October 2008; and to $822 by the end of December 2008. FINRA Sanctions. Murillo was suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for 20 business days and ordered to pay partial restitution of $35,000 to a customer.  In light of Murillo’s financial status, the sanctions include partial restitution and do not include a monetary fine. For further details, go to: [FINRA AWC #2008014728701, 6/20/11] and FINRA Disciplinary Action for August 2011].