John Carris Investments Expelled by FINRA

A FINRA panel has expelled John Carris Investments LLC, along with Chief Executive Officer George Carris from the securities industry. Both are accused of suitability violations and fraud.

According to the panel, Carris and JCI were reckless when selling shares of stock and promissory notes. They purportedly left out material facts and used misleading statements. Both have been barred for manipulating Fibrocell’s stock price via the unfunded purchases of big stock blocks and engaging in trading that was pre-arranged through matched limit orders.

The FINRA panel said that JCI and Carris acted fraudulently when they did not reveal the poor financial state of parent company Invictus Capital yet sold the latter’s stock and notes. Material facts were purportedly left out of offering documents. Rather than shutting down operations when it ran out of net capital compliance, JCI kept selling Bridge Offering notes to investors and using money from the sales to remedy its net cap deficiency while not telling customers that was were the money went. Offering sales were also used by Carris to cover his personal spending.

Carris and his firm are accused of keeping inaccurate records and books, not remitting payroll taxes for employees, failing to put into place anti-money laundering procedures and policies, and not setting up and enforcing a reasonable supervisory system.

Registered representative Andrew Tkatchenko was suspended for two years for recommending the stock and promissory notes without having reasonable grounds. Jason Barter, the head trader, received an 18-month suspension for his involvement. Both also must pay fines.

Our securities lawyers represent investors seeking to recover their financial fraud losses.

FINRA Hearing Panel Expels John Carris Investments and Bars CEO George Carris for Fraud, FINRA, January 14, 2014

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