Christopher Richard Barone (Christopher Barone) – Financial Advisor/Broker Christopher Barone Barred from Securities Industry | Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. May Recover Investor Losses
Christopher Richard Barone (Christopher Barone) CRD #2032268
Christopher Barone was a previously licensed financial advisor/broker with Mariner Investment Group, America Northcoast Securities, Inc., and Arbor Court Capital, LLC. FINRA reports that Barone was barred from the securities industry in January 2020.
According to FINRA:
Christopher Barone consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that Barone made misrepresentations to FINRA about the frequency of Christopher Barone’s supervision of his Member Firm’s trade reporting responsibilities, and altered documents that Barone produced to FINRA. The findings stated that FINRA conducted two inquiries pertaining to the Firm’s compliance with its trade reporting responsibilities. One of these inquiries pertained to the Firm’s reporting of municipal securities transactions to the MSRB. Christopher Barone was solely responsible for preparing the Firm’s response. Barone falsely represented that he “reviewed these trades monthly to make sure we are not reporting late to MSRB,”. In fact, Christopher Barone was reviewing the Firm’s municipal trade reporting only on, at most, a quarterly basis. Christopher Barone also produced three MSRB spreadsheets that purportedly evidenced his supervisory reviews; but before doing so, Barone altered the documents in two important ways. First, Barone removed the search date on the document, which was evidence off when Christopher Barone had actually conducted the review. Second, Christopher Barone added a different date and his initials. In a separate inquiry, FINRA requested that the Firm produce evidence of supervisory reviews in connection with its reporting responsibilities through the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE). Barone produced a document that Barone had created. This document was entitled FINRA Report Center Reviews, and included a column designated reviewed. Under this column were thirteen dates, purportedly showing that Barone had conducted monthly reviews for TRACE reporting compliance. FINRA’s Report Center Usage Log showed that the firm had conducted a TRACE reporting compliance review on only three occasions. As a result, FINRA requested that Christopher Barone confirm that the reviewed dates represent the dates the Firm conducted the reviews, and Christopher Barone responded “correct”. Because Barone had, in fact, only conducted a TRACE reporting review three times, his representation was false.
According to Christopher Barone’s BrokerCheck, six customer disputes have been settled alleging sales practice violations against Christopher Barone.
Customer Dispute (5/17/17): Allegations include negligence, violations of FINRA rules, breach of fiduciary duty, unsuitability, unauthorized trading, and failure to supervise. This customer dispute settled for $242,000. The product at issue was Leveraged ETFs.
Customer Dispute (4/25/17): Allegations include negligence, violations of FINRA rules, breach of fiduciary duty, unsuitability, unauthorized trading, and failure to supervise. This customer dispute settled for $252,000. The product at issue was Leveraged ETFs.
Customer Dispute (1/23/17): Allegations include negligence, violations of FINRA rules and recommendations, negligence, unsuitability, failure to supervise, and unauthorized trading. This customer dispute settled for $70,000. The product at issue was Leveraged ETFs.
Customer Dispute (8/31/16): Allegations include violations of the Ohio Securities Act and FINRA rules, negligence, unsuitability, failure to supervise, unauthorized trading, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract. This customer dispute settled for $200,000. The product at issue was Leveraged ETFs.
Customer Dispute (8/15/16): Allegations include negligence, violations of FINRA rules, breach of fiduciary duty, unsuitability, unauthorized trading, and failure to supervise. This customer dispute settled for $162,500. The product at issue was Leveraged ETFs.
Customer Dispute (8/1/16): Allegations include violations of the Ohio Securities Act and FINRA rules, negligence, unsuitability, failure to supervise, unauthorized trading, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and breach of contract. This customer dispute settled for $60,000. The product at issue was Leveraged ETFs.
Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. May Recover Investor Losses
If you lost money on investments with Christopher Barone and believe the investments may have been unsuitable or otherwise improper for you, we would like to discuss the possibility of your retaining our firm to represent you in an arbitration action concerning Christopher Barone’s conduct. There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf.
Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA, has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. has recovered more than $180 million on behalf of victimized investors. If you lost money on investments with Christopher Barone and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.
Some of the information in this blog post was obtained on 7/29/2020 directly from FINRA BrokerCheck, without any changes. If you believe this information was reported incorrectly, please contact our firm at 1-800-500-4442.