A Registered Supervisor, while working in Leesburg, GA, for Wells Fargo Advisors should have known better than to try and settle a customer complaint with a personal check.   And yet, it might have worked, except the check bounced for non-sufficient funds. FINRA Alleged Findings. Frank Patrick O’Lear Jr., who began his securities career in 1976, received instructions on 2/9/09 from a customer to sell 4 preferred stocks in her account.  He failed to sell the preferred stocks as instructed, which violated FINRA Rule 2010, which resulted in a $6,866 loss to the customer. In early March, the customer complained to the firm, which prompted O'Lear to provide the customer with a check on 3/15 to cover her losses.   This too violated FINRA Rule 2010. When the check bounced for insufficient funds, O'Lear presented the customer with a 2nd check on 3/25 - this time for $6,900, which included the NSF charges.  The 2nd check cleared.  However, O’Lear made both payments to the customer without his firm’s knowledge or authorization.

[C-I Note: While FINRA does not explain why or how it learned of O'Lear's actions, it's likely that the firm noted the incident in its files - after all, the customer complained to the firm before O'Lear offered to compensate her for the losses.  Given that fact, one really has to question O'Lear's intelligence or logic - remember, he didn't advise the firm he was offering personal checks.  That's because, he was smart enough to know that would not be permitted.

All in all, it was a case of one error leading to another and another.  Trying to resolve a problem on one's own is bad enough.  Doing it after the firm is aware of a complaint - remember, complaints can be in written or verbal form - is suicidal.  Wells Fargo filed O'Lear's Form U5 on 4/22/10.]

FINRA Sanction. O'Lear accepted a $10K fine and a 20-day suspension in any capacity. For further details, go to:  [FINRA AWC #2010022872001] [Disciplinary Actions for Sept. 2011]