Mr. Laifer was named as a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that he circumvented a prohibition by his member firm against further purchases of a low-priced and thinly traded penny stock. The complaint alleges that Laifer allowed his customers to have their stock share certificates reissued in another person’s name, and the reissued shares were subsequently deposited into transferee customers’ accounts. The complaint alleges that Laifer falsified documents that supported customer withdrawals or transfers by photocopying actual customer signatures from documents and taping the photocopied signatures on other forms, or whiting out dates on previously signed forms and entering a new date, and then submitting the falsified documents to his member firm for processing. The complaint also alleges that Laifer’s altered documents and transfer of penny stock shares not reflected as trades caused his member firm’s books and records to be inaccurate. The complaint further alleges that Laifer exercised discretionary and excessive trading in a customer’s non-discretionary accounts without the customer’s written authorization, and without his firm’s acceptance of the accounts as discretionary.

(FINRA Case #2007010941701)