Giarrusso Law Group LLC continues its investigation into allegations of misconduct by former stockbroker Narith Long (Long, CRD No. 6598152). Attorney Michael Giarrusso is currently representing an aggrieved investor bringing a securities arbitration claim involving Mr. Long and is interested in speaking with other investors who may well have claims to recover their investment losses.
According to public disclosures through FINRA BrokerCheck, Mr. Long has been named or is otherwise involved in a total of four customer complaints during the course of his career as a financial advisor. Specifically, one written customer complaint concerning Mr. Long—who was previously employed by NYLIFE Securities LLC (NY Life) as a financial advisor from December 2019 until his termination from employment in December 2020—alleged that “Mr. Long was selling away by trading securities on the complainant’s behalf through an outside broker-dealer using the complainant’s log in information to place the trades.” This matter resulted in a settlement of $17,120.
Furthermore, Mr. Long has been named or is otherwise involved in three pending securities arbitration disputes before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). These pending FINRA proceedings each concern the same general allegations, namely that Mr. Long engaged in misconduct by advising each customer to “open a brokerage account at an outside broker-dealer” in order that Mr. Long could then trade on a discretionary basis on the customer’s behalf. These three pending FINRA disputes allege aggregate damages of approximately $330,000, in connection with trading losses incurred by Mr. Long’s purported discretionary trading in outside brokerage accounts held away from his then-employer, NY Life.
Pursuant to FINRA Rule 3110 (NASD Rule 3010), brokerage firms like NY Life must “establish and maintain a system to supervise the activities of each associated person that is reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable securities laws and regulations, and with applicable FINRA rules.” It is critical for broker-dealers like NY Life to not only establish such a supervisory system, but furthermore to properly exercise and maintain their supervision, by among other things, periodically meeting with individual financial advisors to discuss the products they are selling and their sales methods, as well as to examine correspondence with customers.
A broker-dealer’s duty to supervise includes a duty to perform certain activities that would potentially detect undisclosed outside business activities of firm representatives. See McGraw v. Wachovia Sec., LLC, 756 F. Supp. 2d 1053, 1074 (N.D. Iowa 2009). In instances where a customer suffers losses due to a financial advisor’s misconduct—including engaging in selling (or trading) products away from their firm by conducting business at an outside brokerage firm—then the brokerage firm employing that broker may be held liable for their failure to adequately supervise their employee.
Investors who have suffered losses with Narith Long, or another financial advisor, may contact our office by telephone at (201) 771-1115 or by email at info@gialawgroup.com for a free, confidential consultation to learn more about their legal rights. The attorneys at Giarrusso Law Group LLC have extensive experience with handling all manner of claims on behalf of investors who have been victimized by securities fraud or related misconduct.