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Our law firm is currently investigating claims on behalf of former customers of Robert Franklin Hockensmith, Jr. Hockensmith was registered with H.D. Vest from 1999 to April 2008. In 2010, Hockensmith submitted an Offer of Settlement in which he was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Hockensmith consented to the described sanction and to the entry of findings that he participated in transactions involving investment in a purported foreign currency exchange (FOREX) trading program and did not seek his member firm’s written authorization to participate, and the firm was unaware of and did not authorize his participation. The findings stated that the purported FOREX trading program was not a firm-approved product and the firm did not have a selling agreement with the purported trading program. The findings also stated that the firm’s written procedures advised representatives that prior to engaging in a private securities transaction, representatives must submit a written request to the compliance department describing the proposed transactions and that written authorization from the compliance department must be received before a representative could engage in such conduct.
FINRA also found that Hockensmith completed and executed his firm’s representative affirmations addressing the firm’s policies and procedures regarding selling away/private securities transactions, and the firm addressed the topic at multiple annual compliance meetings, as well as issuing compliance bulletins/notices to its representatives regarding selling away/private securities transactions.FINRA found that Hockensmith borrowed $200,000 from a client without his firm’s knowledge or consent and contrary to the firm’s written procedures prohibiting representatives from borrowing from a customer. FINRA also found that Hockensmith executed representative affirmations agreeing to his firm’s procedures manual regarding prohibited activities, which included borrowing from customers. In addition, FINRA determined that Hockensmith failed to respond to FINRA Rule 8210 requests for information.