James Anthony Pilla Jr. (Jim Pilla) Suspended from Securities Industry and Fired by Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. – Goodman & Nekvasil P.A., May Recover Investor Losses

Goodman & Nekvasil P.A., May Recover Investor Losses – James Anthony Pilla Jr. (Jim Pilla) Suspended from Securities Industry and Fired by Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

From October 2009 until Jim Pilla’s firing in May 2010, Jim Pilla was licensed with Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Jim Pilla was subsequently licensed with National Securities Corporation and Valic Financial Advisors, Inc. According to FINRA’s records, Jim Pilla was fired by Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. on May 13, 2010. Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. reported to FINRA that Jim Pilla was fired for violation of the firm’s KYC (Know Your Customer) policies.

Subsequent to Jim Pilla’s firing by Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., FINRA investigated Jim Pilla and brought a disciplinary action against Jim Pilla. Jim Pilla was fined $15,000 and suspended 3 months from the securities and investment banking industry on March 12, 2013. FINRA reports that Jim Pilla consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that Jim Pilla failed to follow the policies and procedures in Jim Pilla’s member firm’s anti-money laundering compliance program (AMLCP) in that Jim Pilla failed to have face-to-face meetings with numerous customers who opened new accounts and although Jim Pilla had non-U.S. client accounts and transacted business with these customers while they were out of the U.S., Jim Pilla never made arrangements to conduct business via an attorney-in-fact when the non-U.S. citizens were out of the country, Jim Pilla failed to identify and escalate AML red flags. FINRA reports that accounts were composed exclusively of penny stocks and the trading activity fell into consistent patterns of suspicious activity: accounts were opened and funded primarily with penny stocks; followed by the journaling of the penny stocks between firm accounts; and the sale of the securities by all of the involved accounts at approximately the same time. According to FINRA, the sales of the penny stocks were sometimes followed by the immediate wiring of the sale proceeds to outside bank accounts. According to FINRA, despite the instances of suspicious activity in multiple accounts, Jim Pilla did not perform any additional due diligence, alert anyone at the firm of this activity and did not escalate these issues to the firm’s AML Officer.

If you lost any money on investments with Jim Pilla, you may be able to recover your losses from National Securities Corporation and/or Valic Financial Advisors, Inc. This is because National Securities Corporation and Valic Financial Advisors, Inc. had a duty to supervise Jim Pilla. 

If you lost money on investments with Jim Pilla and believe that 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 against National Securities Corporation and/or Valic Financial Advisors, Inc. concerning Jim Pilla’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 $300 million on behalf of victimized investors. If you lost money on investments with Jim Pilla 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.

 

Keywords: James Anthony Pilla, James Pilla, Pilla, National Securities Corporation, Valic Financial, Ameriprise Financial, FINRA, SEC, Fraud, Attorney, Broker, Brokerage, Firm, Brokerage Firm, Invest, Lawyer, Securities Lawyer, Goodman and Nekvasil, Nekvasil, Goodman, Investor, Investment, Financial, Financial Services, Securities 

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