Windsor Street Capital

Jovannie Aquino, a former Windsor Street Capital broker, is now barred by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Aquino was charged by the regulator last year with allegedly churning in clients’ accounts. The Commission is accusing Aquino of engaging in acts of fraud and omissions that caused customers to lose about $881K, even as he made $935K in commissions.

The SEC, in its complaint, accused the ex-Windsor Street Capital broker of excessive trading in retail customers’ accounts. The regulator said that Aquino allegedly convinced at least seven customers to maintain trading accounts at Windsor and told them he would engage in a trading strategy that would cause them to make money. He suggested frequent, short-term trades and charging fees and commission for each transaction.

The Commission said that because of how often the trading took place, along with the fees and commissions that the clients were charged, from the start they stood to lose money rather than make a profit. This means that Aquino didn’t have reasonable grounds for thinking that his trading strategy would be suitable for the customers despite the fact that suitability for recommending an investment is a requirement. Not only that, but also, for six of the investors who were harmed, the trading levels employed were entirely unsuitable for them in light of their investment goals, financial needs, the level of risk that they could handle, and other specifics.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed an administrative case against Windsor Street Capital and John D. Telfer, its ex-anti-money laundering officer. The regulator’s enforcement division claims that the New York-based broker dealer did not file Suspicious Activity Reports for $24.8M of suspect transactions, including those connected to an alleged pump-and-dump scam.

The regulator claims that Windsor Street Capital, at the time known as Meyers Associates LP, and Telfer should have been aware of the suspect circumstances involving a lot of these transactions and conducted a probe—in particular, into transactions involving William Goode and Raymond Barton. These men are microcap stock financiers accused of running a multi-million dollar pump-and=dump scam.

The SEC has filed separate charges against them, as well as against Kenneth Manzo, Matthew Briggs, and Justin Sindelman. The five of them are accused of acquiring shares of dormant shell companies that were supposed to be part of the dietary supplement industry, falsely marketing products and news related to the company, and then dumping the shares onto the market for investors to buy at inflated rates.

Articles Tagged with Windsor Street Capital

Ex-Windsor Street Capital Broker is Barred

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