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Distinguished Toastmaster
BUSINESS & BRANDING COACH . LIFE & LEADERSHIP STRATEGIST MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER SERVING ENTREPRENEURS & MAIN STREET |
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THE POLICY OF PUBLIC FINANCIALS: [ NASAA SPRING CONFERENCE ] (c) Carrie Devorah :
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It was a day I wished I had read my horoscope before stepping in to the Washington Court Hotel. Life’s little lessons are learned from how the stars in our universe converge. Or not. Sometimes there is a little moon that clouds the sky, in this case, clouded the day, a six foot tall ‘moon’ that blocked the sun. Temporarily.
The Washington Court Hotel was home for the 2016 NASAA Public Policy Conference. Senator Susan Collins was the keynote speaker. Collins was seeking industry assistance on her Seniors & Financial & Internet Scams Bill, a worthwhile Bill adressing crimes that, truth be told, target people of all ages. But DC being DC and Congress being Congress, every issue has thousands of constituents angles. Legislators have their pet themes. Collins being a former regulator herself, financial crime to Collins was like a duck taking to water, a natural fit.
The NASAA is not known well. It should be. Like the FINRA, the NASAA may need a Red Flag alert. The NASAA promotes itself as being an information source to securities commissioners. I would have thought that Congress is that information source securities commissioners. At first and second blush, the NASAA looks more like one more hand in the alleged “investor protection” gambit. The deeper one delves, the NASAA is more of an obstruction of investor protection. Make the call. Tell them you are an investor seeking help. The answer is ‘call the (relevant) securities commission.’
NASAA is the National Association of Securities Administrators Associations. NASAA is a dot org (.org) not a dot gov (.gov), yet, strangely enough, all the nation’s .gov securities commissions are “members” of the private business, NASAA, a .org, a charity an I.R.S. approved 501(c)(3). Translated, your state securities commission is paying membership fees as a donation to a charity with no congressional authority it appears and of no benefit to investor protections other than giving State Security Commissions, a get away twice a year, 3 squares and food expense, investors and citizens footing the Commission attendee bills.
I went back to vet an email received a while back from the House Financial Services Committee. I asked Congress to authenticate the claim made by FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, alleging FINRA was authorized by an Act of Congress. Well, not quite, and No.
Not quite, in that Congress authorized for multiple S.R.O.s to be created to address only securities Broker and securities Brokerage relationship. The S.E.C. confirmed that one only organization ever submitted papers to become an S.R.O. that Congress allowed for; and, “No,” the Financial Services Committee wrote me, “FINRA was a private business… Congress does not authorize their (FINRA) existence…”
Someone has some s’plaining to do.
NASAA pitches itself as a non-governmental non-profit private business league collecting dues from the securities commissions of each and every state and territory, government agencies. NASAA says its mission statement is “investor protection.” “Investor protection” is a buzzword targeting the illusion of compliance to a law Congress wrote, maybe. “Investor protection” is a keyword that looks good on a resume, that lightens pockets and opens up purse strings. Every Joe & Jane on the street should know the NASAA anacronym, and name does nothing for investors because the Financial Services industry won’t be that blunt.
The NASAA alleges to be“…In the United States… the voice of state securities agencies responsible for efficient capital formation and grassroots investor protection…” A legitimate question to raise is how can NASAA be both the voice for government agencies and allege “…NASAA's fundamental mission is protecting consumers who purchase securities or investment advice, and its jurisdiction extends to a wide variety of issuers and intermediaries who offer and sell securities to the public.”
To my way of thinking, NASAA cannot. But then, who am I? No one. But the SEC wrote, "The nation's State securities commissioners are not required to become members of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). NASAA is a voluntary association whose membership consists of 67 state, provincial, and territorial securities administrators in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, and Mexico...."
Wikipedia says “NASAA is an association of state securities administrators who are charged with the responsibility to protect consumers who purchase securities or investment advice. NASAA's membership consists of 67 administrators from the territories, districts, and states of the United States, from Mexico, and from the provinces of Canada.”
The unanswered question remains who gave NASAA that “charge.” Still waiting on that answer. The SEC says, it did not. While NASAA set itself, with good intentions, as a nonprofit, the charity as not succeed in achieving its IRS approved mission statement goals of "investor protection."
Wikipedia does tend to bloat itself with industry “ puff pieces” some written by hacks who found their careers covering news on the Hill sunsetted, gone, conceding that to stay around “the action” they become PR persons for industry associations. Wikipedia’s posting continues “Through the association, NASAA members participate in multi-state enforcement actions and information sharing. NASAA also coordinates and implements training programs and education seminars for state, district, provincial, and territorial securities agency staff. The Uniform Securities Agent State Law Exam is written and administered by NASAA… Representative of the nature of its activities are its frequent warnings regarding investment fraud, its focus on the tax advantages of college plans, and its involvement in naked short selling litigation aimed at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. NASAA also provides a coordinated review process for companies using Regulation A of the Securities Act of 1933 to raise capital.”
The NASAA.org website says “Putting Investors First- THE ROLE OF STATE SECURITIES REGULATORS… For more than 100 years, state securities regulators have been protecting Main Street investors from fraud. State securities regulation predates the creation of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission by almost two decades.” (http://www.nasaa.org/about-us/our-role/) It says for 100 years “NASAA membership consists of 67 state, provincial, and territorial securities administrators in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico...” it says “…longer than any other securities
It continues “the securities administrator in your state is responsible for licensing securities firms and investment professionals, such as broker-dealers and investment advisers, registering certain securities offerings, reviewing financial offerings of small companies, auditing branch office sales practices and record-keeping, promoting investor education, and most importantly, enforcing state securities laws. In addition to protecting investors, many state regulators also help small businesses raise money and comply with securities laws. Some state securities regulators are appointed by their Governors or Secretaries of State, others are career state government employees, and five come under the jurisdiction of their states’ Attorneys General. Depending on your state, your securities regulator may be found in an independent securities commission or may work in a department that also regulates banking or insurance.”
Congress created the S.E.C. with the Securities Act of 1934. According to NASAA’s mathematical allegations, the chicken came before the egg, the NASAA has been around since 1914. Or 1919. NASAA’s website says it was organized in 1919 as a Kansas organization, acting loosely as an association. NASAA’s first director was hired in 1983. The NASAA DC office was opened four years later, 1987. For correctness of fact, the I.R.S. states the ‘ruling year’ of NASAA is 1994.
Hey, it’s DC. The carpet rarely matches the curtains.
NASAA says Securities legislation was approved in Manitoba, Canada but Kansas served as the nationwide model for state and provincial securities regulation where the first “modern state” blue sky law was honed. “Blue sky” laws were supposed to rein in regulation of securities offerings and the licensing of broker-dealers and their agents. “Blue sky” was supposed to describe ‘schemes’ pitched to investors, you know, like that farm country phrase, "so many feet of blue sky.”
Well, in 2016, be it in Kansas or Manitoba, one has to look the old school past farming colloquialism towards the exponential scheming computer fraud exploding in the “cloud”.
NASAA’s IRS Form 990 does not clarify the NASAA “67 members” are all government agencies or just members that“NASAA represents and serves its members through advocacy, education, subject matter and expertise.” It is no head scratcher to understand the private organization collecting dues from its for Government agencies, the state by state Securities commissions, business league is not collecting dues from investors.
Of no surprise is that NASAA, “the oldest international investor protection organization” a 501(c )(3) charity’s annually released publications over the years have been named approving titles such as 2011-2012 Welcome to the Next Century of Investor Protection; 2010-2011 Standing Strong for Investors; 2009-2010 Fighting Fraud, Protecting Investors, Championing Reform; 2007-2008 Because Every Investor Deserves Protection; 2006-2007 Advancing a Legacy of Investor Protection; 2005-2006 Working Together to Protect Investors; 2004-2005 Protecting Investors & Restoring Integrity, all the while Wall Street crimes continue, and where policy does not meet public, annually in DC.
Almost.
So, there it was, unknown but accomplishment lauded, I arrived at the Spring Conference, approved, as a blogger, with a hook. NASAA is one of the 9 consumer groups that wrote Congressman Keith Ellison and Senator Al Franken (D-MN), supporting my Bill HR 1098, the Investor Choice Act of 2015, which began life as Bill HR 2998 which was followed by the GOP Bill HR 1090. That sole person, that one investor that accomplished what the industry has been jonesing for, years now, a Bill setting in play Investor protections, dealing with a hack who forgot communications goes both ways, that sometimes chest thumping while on the job is best left in the jungle. On the job? It gets reported, then shared. Politics can get less complicated if you stay friends with both sides, walking the road less traveled down the middle. Politics get more complicated when a layperson does without compensation to accomplish change what the 501(c)(3) and (c )(6) executive directors and lobbyists failed accomplishing for years.
NASAA’s spring Public Policy Conference was not an eye opener for me. Been there done most of that during almost ten years covering events in DC. NASAA’s conference was an affirmation. A lot of nice agency or commission people still doing, jobs. DC is a city of perks. The routine of papers in, papers out, clock in, clock out, head home at 5:00 gets broken up with luncheons at conferences.
For me, the conference was a chance to meet in person some of the many State Securities Commissioners I have come to know by phone and by email, and, of course, to see NASAA in action.
I was no less surprised to be consistent learning how many more of the NASAA members did not know that FINRA is not a .gov. My patent response, these days is, “That’s ok. No is an expected answer.” Most of the NASAA members I had connected with pre- the NASAA Spring Conference, until I provided documentation to the contrary, presumed FINRA’s monthly report releasing data stats on “enforcement,” “disciplines” and “barred” is government report. No. I explain, “Congress created The Commission. Congress told the Commission to oversee securities Brokers and Brokerages, and appoint multiple S.R.O.s, Self-Regulatory Organizations to oversee the Brokers and Brokerage issues, instead the Commission only appointed one S.R.O. the FINRA/NASD which somehow got control of Investment client and Investment advisor complaints neither of which Congress gave the FINRA/NASD oversight of…”. “FINRA’s monthly Enforcement reports” I explain, “ are doo-dadded up documents, hoax, posser, sham, deceptive marketing, consumer fraud, duck blind decided by business league peers of the person or entity on the hot seat, this week.” No cops are involved. No cops, no enforcement. FINRA does not report crimes to cops, nor does NASAA. Sometimes the Securities Commissions do. Sometimes.
One of the Securities Commissioners is the man who gave a clean Bill of Health to “TKAM, To Kill A Mocking Bird” Harper Lee’s fiscal ability before Harper died. I guess it’s a new thing, working as a Securities Commission being tantamount to getting an M.D… I guess. Not sure he told me he called the cops.
NASAA’s Spring Conference day ran from 11:00 – 4:15pm. The conference panels were impressive. Truly. But puzzling. None of the events were live streamed for investor education. NASAA’s project the Senior Protection Bill was presented and seconded, by Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, NASAA’s lunchtime keynote speaker.
The Spring Conference was revealing. For as many years of my covering the Hill and Senator Collins, the NASAA Spring Conference was my first time learning Senator Collins was a former securities regulator, herself. Stories Collins shared on seniors victims from Internet and financial scams, broke the hearts of Conference attendees. Even the FINRA attendees and securities team of the DISB, Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking, who failed in oversight of what is evolving as DC’s most egregious financial crime because, they claim, it did not match a DC Securities law, their oversight, even the DISB threesome paused eating to listen, to watch. Something to be said about government employees who, despite failing District and other investors fleeced by a con expert in internet social media outreach, nothing impedes their appetites at a free lunch attended on taxpayer funded business hours.
Hearts broke watching Manhattan District Attorney Catherine Christian’s videos of fleeced elders. Lonely hearts were befriended online and off of people who left them victims with little cash in their bank. A particular clip, gut wrenching, of an old man who died soon after his video moment was made, left the room with me, more resolute to make sure dots are connected to put civil servants who fail in their oversight where they belong as accessories to crimes, before, during or after.
Both Senator Collins and Catherine listed the many ways elders are robbed, it is robbery not just of their savings but of their dignity after a lifetime of service. Like the story of an elderly 90+ year old couple whose caretakers were removing art from the victim’s walls, jewelry from the victim’s drawers.
There is hope for humanity.
Attendees did hear stories of bank tellers calling cops when new ‘friends’ accompanying elderly old customers to the banks; reporting powers of attorney, vehicles by which accounts are emptied then dumped in to 3rd accounts or even others. There are heroes. Unpaid. Unsung. Not at the luncheon.
Senator Collins said the proposed number of annual elderly fraud is $2.8 billion dollars. That will never be a correct number. This is where Susan disappointed me.
No one does or will ever know the size of elderly fraud crimes. They cannot. The crimes are covered up by the co-creators of the cottage industry called “securities fraud.” The FINRA and the PIABA, Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association created a cottage industry covering up financial crimes, does not report complaints to law enforcement nor to FINCEN. The true number of crimes against the elderly will never be known because PIABA lawyers created Rules and Procedures that take Investment claimants in to the FINRA cone of silence DRS forum where claims against FINRA dues paying members in never seen of again by public eyes via harmed investment clients guided through a system of signing Confidentiality Agreements that bar the investor from talking details of the procedure moving forward. Just to make sure, the victim is silenced, to FINRA and PIABA created the Expungement exit, in which the robbed investor signs an agreement to get monies back on the investor’s losses at, standard rate, 1/10th of the amount sued for. There will be no record of claims that are denied, expunged or settled. The FINRA/NASD rules include that FINRA records are destroyed after 5 years. Court records live forever. The FINRA/NASD rules and procedures do not report thefts to police.
The NASAA shirks its duty in failure to clarify that Securities Commissions have oversight of the Securities Brokers and Brokerages. Why? Because securities licenses are awarded state to state, under oversight of the UCC, not the FAA, Federal Arbitration Act as FINRA alleges to courts. Quite peculiar is the Brokers award FINRA issues for awards against Investors does state the award/DRS was conducted according to the FINRA DRS, Dispute Resolution Rules and Procedures. I guess someone was not looking when Congress authorized that.
Highlights of the NASAA Spring Conference were panelists Kevin Anselm from the Alaska Department of Banking & Securities offered the opening and closing remarks. Anselm interviewed Manhattan DA Christian on “Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation.” The “Enforcement As An Extension of Public Policy” panel was moderated by Utah Securities Division, Keith Woodwell. Panelists included Andrew Ceresney from the U.S. SEC, academic John Coffee, Ontario Securities Commission Monica Kowal and Laura Posner from the New Jersey Securities Bureau. Texas Securities Board John Morgan who took on White Collar Prosecution with guests “Too Big To Jail” author Brandon Garrett, Steve Feaga of the Alabama Securities Commission, Telemachus Kasulis of the US Attorney’s office SDNY and Chad Johnson.
In a world of technology and Panama Papers that even exist to be leaked, it is heartbreaking there are not enough of the good people to fight the bad people. More time was needed for the conference. More audience. More lessons taught. Failure is communications, lack of it.
It was the first time I heard of "Deferred Prosecution" an arrangement the Justice Department cuts protecting Defendants from harsher treatment, adding to the puzzlement why Wall Streeter's continue to be "Too Big To Jail." It's just that Wall Streeters can afford to hire better lawyers than Main Street'rs and Felons. Bottom line. The DOJ turns a perp walk in to a cupcake walk, in Manolos or Guccis on the way to voting, an abuse of the regulatory system. Facts don't get made public or challenged in the courts.
The clowns get sent in, instead of the cops. Potential prosecution of involved executives is deferred, exacting penalties if the executives do not live up to the compliance requirement. That is, if the DOJ checks back.
The industry once known as media died 2008. What was left, some say are the hacks, the floaters working communications with attitude rather than skill is a day and time that technology makes media out of every person with a cell phone, with Twitter, youtube, Instagram, facebook, snapchat, periscope- all viable ways to get the word out. Outreach communication failed with no signs giving guidance on coordinated # messages NASAA Spring Conference attendees could hashtag. There were no irritating ‘like us on facebook’ requests. Nothing to connect the dots, to take on the S.R.O., to address the lawyers, the judges, to take crimes against investment advisors to cops instead of getting lost in the regulatory system. No social media to support the NASAA Spring Conference themed to protect elders with Susan Collins and Claire McCaskills bill on Elder Fraud. Nothing.
NASAA is off-track of the NASAA primary goal “to advocate and act for the protection of investors, especially those who lack the expertise, experience and resources to protect their own interests. We are driven by our conviction that every investor deserves protection and an even break, and that the welfare of investors must not be sacrificed in the process of capital formation.”
Until NASAA walks the walk, the investor is on their own.
The Washington Court Hotel was home for the 2016 NASAA Public Policy Conference. Senator Susan Collins was the keynote speaker. Collins was seeking industry assistance on her Seniors & Financial & Internet Scams Bill, a worthwhile Bill adressing crimes that, truth be told, target people of all ages. But DC being DC and Congress being Congress, every issue has thousands of constituents angles. Legislators have their pet themes. Collins being a former regulator herself, financial crime to Collins was like a duck taking to water, a natural fit.
The NASAA is not known well. It should be. Like the FINRA, the NASAA may need a Red Flag alert. The NASAA promotes itself as being an information source to securities commissioners. I would have thought that Congress is that information source securities commissioners. At first and second blush, the NASAA looks more like one more hand in the alleged “investor protection” gambit. The deeper one delves, the NASAA is more of an obstruction of investor protection. Make the call. Tell them you are an investor seeking help. The answer is ‘call the (relevant) securities commission.’
NASAA is the National Association of Securities Administrators Associations. NASAA is a dot org (.org) not a dot gov (.gov), yet, strangely enough, all the nation’s .gov securities commissions are “members” of the private business, NASAA, a .org, a charity an I.R.S. approved 501(c)(3). Translated, your state securities commission is paying membership fees as a donation to a charity with no congressional authority it appears and of no benefit to investor protections other than giving State Security Commissions, a get away twice a year, 3 squares and food expense, investors and citizens footing the Commission attendee bills.
I went back to vet an email received a while back from the House Financial Services Committee. I asked Congress to authenticate the claim made by FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, alleging FINRA was authorized by an Act of Congress. Well, not quite, and No.
Not quite, in that Congress authorized for multiple S.R.O.s to be created to address only securities Broker and securities Brokerage relationship. The S.E.C. confirmed that one only organization ever submitted papers to become an S.R.O. that Congress allowed for; and, “No,” the Financial Services Committee wrote me, “FINRA was a private business… Congress does not authorize their (FINRA) existence…”
Someone has some s’plaining to do.
NASAA pitches itself as a non-governmental non-profit private business league collecting dues from the securities commissions of each and every state and territory, government agencies. NASAA says its mission statement is “investor protection.” “Investor protection” is a buzzword targeting the illusion of compliance to a law Congress wrote, maybe. “Investor protection” is a keyword that looks good on a resume, that lightens pockets and opens up purse strings. Every Joe & Jane on the street should know the NASAA anacronym, and name does nothing for investors because the Financial Services industry won’t be that blunt.
The NASAA alleges to be“…In the United States… the voice of state securities agencies responsible for efficient capital formation and grassroots investor protection…” A legitimate question to raise is how can NASAA be both the voice for government agencies and allege “…NASAA's fundamental mission is protecting consumers who purchase securities or investment advice, and its jurisdiction extends to a wide variety of issuers and intermediaries who offer and sell securities to the public.”
To my way of thinking, NASAA cannot. But then, who am I? No one. But the SEC wrote, "The nation's State securities commissioners are not required to become members of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). NASAA is a voluntary association whose membership consists of 67 state, provincial, and territorial securities administrators in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, and Mexico...."
Wikipedia says “NASAA is an association of state securities administrators who are charged with the responsibility to protect consumers who purchase securities or investment advice. NASAA's membership consists of 67 administrators from the territories, districts, and states of the United States, from Mexico, and from the provinces of Canada.”
The unanswered question remains who gave NASAA that “charge.” Still waiting on that answer. The SEC says, it did not. While NASAA set itself, with good intentions, as a nonprofit, the charity as not succeed in achieving its IRS approved mission statement goals of "investor protection."
Wikipedia does tend to bloat itself with industry “ puff pieces” some written by hacks who found their careers covering news on the Hill sunsetted, gone, conceding that to stay around “the action” they become PR persons for industry associations. Wikipedia’s posting continues “Through the association, NASAA members participate in multi-state enforcement actions and information sharing. NASAA also coordinates and implements training programs and education seminars for state, district, provincial, and territorial securities agency staff. The Uniform Securities Agent State Law Exam is written and administered by NASAA… Representative of the nature of its activities are its frequent warnings regarding investment fraud, its focus on the tax advantages of college plans, and its involvement in naked short selling litigation aimed at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. NASAA also provides a coordinated review process for companies using Regulation A of the Securities Act of 1933 to raise capital.”
The NASAA.org website says “Putting Investors First- THE ROLE OF STATE SECURITIES REGULATORS… For more than 100 years, state securities regulators have been protecting Main Street investors from fraud. State securities regulation predates the creation of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission by almost two decades.” (http://www.nasaa.org/about-us/our-role/) It says for 100 years “NASAA membership consists of 67 state, provincial, and territorial securities administrators in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico...” it says “…longer than any other securities
It continues “the securities administrator in your state is responsible for licensing securities firms and investment professionals, such as broker-dealers and investment advisers, registering certain securities offerings, reviewing financial offerings of small companies, auditing branch office sales practices and record-keeping, promoting investor education, and most importantly, enforcing state securities laws. In addition to protecting investors, many state regulators also help small businesses raise money and comply with securities laws. Some state securities regulators are appointed by their Governors or Secretaries of State, others are career state government employees, and five come under the jurisdiction of their states’ Attorneys General. Depending on your state, your securities regulator may be found in an independent securities commission or may work in a department that also regulates banking or insurance.”
Congress created the S.E.C. with the Securities Act of 1934. According to NASAA’s mathematical allegations, the chicken came before the egg, the NASAA has been around since 1914. Or 1919. NASAA’s website says it was organized in 1919 as a Kansas organization, acting loosely as an association. NASAA’s first director was hired in 1983. The NASAA DC office was opened four years later, 1987. For correctness of fact, the I.R.S. states the ‘ruling year’ of NASAA is 1994.
Hey, it’s DC. The carpet rarely matches the curtains.
NASAA says Securities legislation was approved in Manitoba, Canada but Kansas served as the nationwide model for state and provincial securities regulation where the first “modern state” blue sky law was honed. “Blue sky” laws were supposed to rein in regulation of securities offerings and the licensing of broker-dealers and their agents. “Blue sky” was supposed to describe ‘schemes’ pitched to investors, you know, like that farm country phrase, "so many feet of blue sky.”
Well, in 2016, be it in Kansas or Manitoba, one has to look the old school past farming colloquialism towards the exponential scheming computer fraud exploding in the “cloud”.
NASAA’s IRS Form 990 does not clarify the NASAA “67 members” are all government agencies or just members that“NASAA represents and serves its members through advocacy, education, subject matter and expertise.” It is no head scratcher to understand the private organization collecting dues from its for Government agencies, the state by state Securities commissions, business league is not collecting dues from investors.
Of no surprise is that NASAA, “the oldest international investor protection organization” a 501(c )(3) charity’s annually released publications over the years have been named approving titles such as 2011-2012 Welcome to the Next Century of Investor Protection; 2010-2011 Standing Strong for Investors; 2009-2010 Fighting Fraud, Protecting Investors, Championing Reform; 2007-2008 Because Every Investor Deserves Protection; 2006-2007 Advancing a Legacy of Investor Protection; 2005-2006 Working Together to Protect Investors; 2004-2005 Protecting Investors & Restoring Integrity, all the while Wall Street crimes continue, and where policy does not meet public, annually in DC.
Almost.
So, there it was, unknown but accomplishment lauded, I arrived at the Spring Conference, approved, as a blogger, with a hook. NASAA is one of the 9 consumer groups that wrote Congressman Keith Ellison and Senator Al Franken (D-MN), supporting my Bill HR 1098, the Investor Choice Act of 2015, which began life as Bill HR 2998 which was followed by the GOP Bill HR 1090. That sole person, that one investor that accomplished what the industry has been jonesing for, years now, a Bill setting in play Investor protections, dealing with a hack who forgot communications goes both ways, that sometimes chest thumping while on the job is best left in the jungle. On the job? It gets reported, then shared. Politics can get less complicated if you stay friends with both sides, walking the road less traveled down the middle. Politics get more complicated when a layperson does without compensation to accomplish change what the 501(c)(3) and (c )(6) executive directors and lobbyists failed accomplishing for years.
NASAA’s spring Public Policy Conference was not an eye opener for me. Been there done most of that during almost ten years covering events in DC. NASAA’s conference was an affirmation. A lot of nice agency or commission people still doing, jobs. DC is a city of perks. The routine of papers in, papers out, clock in, clock out, head home at 5:00 gets broken up with luncheons at conferences.
For me, the conference was a chance to meet in person some of the many State Securities Commissioners I have come to know by phone and by email, and, of course, to see NASAA in action.
I was no less surprised to be consistent learning how many more of the NASAA members did not know that FINRA is not a .gov. My patent response, these days is, “That’s ok. No is an expected answer.” Most of the NASAA members I had connected with pre- the NASAA Spring Conference, until I provided documentation to the contrary, presumed FINRA’s monthly report releasing data stats on “enforcement,” “disciplines” and “barred” is government report. No. I explain, “Congress created The Commission. Congress told the Commission to oversee securities Brokers and Brokerages, and appoint multiple S.R.O.s, Self-Regulatory Organizations to oversee the Brokers and Brokerage issues, instead the Commission only appointed one S.R.O. the FINRA/NASD which somehow got control of Investment client and Investment advisor complaints neither of which Congress gave the FINRA/NASD oversight of…”. “FINRA’s monthly Enforcement reports” I explain, “ are doo-dadded up documents, hoax, posser, sham, deceptive marketing, consumer fraud, duck blind decided by business league peers of the person or entity on the hot seat, this week.” No cops are involved. No cops, no enforcement. FINRA does not report crimes to cops, nor does NASAA. Sometimes the Securities Commissions do. Sometimes.
One of the Securities Commissioners is the man who gave a clean Bill of Health to “TKAM, To Kill A Mocking Bird” Harper Lee’s fiscal ability before Harper died. I guess it’s a new thing, working as a Securities Commission being tantamount to getting an M.D… I guess. Not sure he told me he called the cops.
NASAA’s Spring Conference day ran from 11:00 – 4:15pm. The conference panels were impressive. Truly. But puzzling. None of the events were live streamed for investor education. NASAA’s project the Senior Protection Bill was presented and seconded, by Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, NASAA’s lunchtime keynote speaker.
The Spring Conference was revealing. For as many years of my covering the Hill and Senator Collins, the NASAA Spring Conference was my first time learning Senator Collins was a former securities regulator, herself. Stories Collins shared on seniors victims from Internet and financial scams, broke the hearts of Conference attendees. Even the FINRA attendees and securities team of the DISB, Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking, who failed in oversight of what is evolving as DC’s most egregious financial crime because, they claim, it did not match a DC Securities law, their oversight, even the DISB threesome paused eating to listen, to watch. Something to be said about government employees who, despite failing District and other investors fleeced by a con expert in internet social media outreach, nothing impedes their appetites at a free lunch attended on taxpayer funded business hours.
Hearts broke watching Manhattan District Attorney Catherine Christian’s videos of fleeced elders. Lonely hearts were befriended online and off of people who left them victims with little cash in their bank. A particular clip, gut wrenching, of an old man who died soon after his video moment was made, left the room with me, more resolute to make sure dots are connected to put civil servants who fail in their oversight where they belong as accessories to crimes, before, during or after.
Both Senator Collins and Catherine listed the many ways elders are robbed, it is robbery not just of their savings but of their dignity after a lifetime of service. Like the story of an elderly 90+ year old couple whose caretakers were removing art from the victim’s walls, jewelry from the victim’s drawers.
There is hope for humanity.
Attendees did hear stories of bank tellers calling cops when new ‘friends’ accompanying elderly old customers to the banks; reporting powers of attorney, vehicles by which accounts are emptied then dumped in to 3rd accounts or even others. There are heroes. Unpaid. Unsung. Not at the luncheon.
Senator Collins said the proposed number of annual elderly fraud is $2.8 billion dollars. That will never be a correct number. This is where Susan disappointed me.
No one does or will ever know the size of elderly fraud crimes. They cannot. The crimes are covered up by the co-creators of the cottage industry called “securities fraud.” The FINRA and the PIABA, Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association created a cottage industry covering up financial crimes, does not report complaints to law enforcement nor to FINCEN. The true number of crimes against the elderly will never be known because PIABA lawyers created Rules and Procedures that take Investment claimants in to the FINRA cone of silence DRS forum where claims against FINRA dues paying members in never seen of again by public eyes via harmed investment clients guided through a system of signing Confidentiality Agreements that bar the investor from talking details of the procedure moving forward. Just to make sure, the victim is silenced, to FINRA and PIABA created the Expungement exit, in which the robbed investor signs an agreement to get monies back on the investor’s losses at, standard rate, 1/10th of the amount sued for. There will be no record of claims that are denied, expunged or settled. The FINRA/NASD rules include that FINRA records are destroyed after 5 years. Court records live forever. The FINRA/NASD rules and procedures do not report thefts to police.
The NASAA shirks its duty in failure to clarify that Securities Commissions have oversight of the Securities Brokers and Brokerages. Why? Because securities licenses are awarded state to state, under oversight of the UCC, not the FAA, Federal Arbitration Act as FINRA alleges to courts. Quite peculiar is the Brokers award FINRA issues for awards against Investors does state the award/DRS was conducted according to the FINRA DRS, Dispute Resolution Rules and Procedures. I guess someone was not looking when Congress authorized that.
Highlights of the NASAA Spring Conference were panelists Kevin Anselm from the Alaska Department of Banking & Securities offered the opening and closing remarks. Anselm interviewed Manhattan DA Christian on “Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation.” The “Enforcement As An Extension of Public Policy” panel was moderated by Utah Securities Division, Keith Woodwell. Panelists included Andrew Ceresney from the U.S. SEC, academic John Coffee, Ontario Securities Commission Monica Kowal and Laura Posner from the New Jersey Securities Bureau. Texas Securities Board John Morgan who took on White Collar Prosecution with guests “Too Big To Jail” author Brandon Garrett, Steve Feaga of the Alabama Securities Commission, Telemachus Kasulis of the US Attorney’s office SDNY and Chad Johnson.
In a world of technology and Panama Papers that even exist to be leaked, it is heartbreaking there are not enough of the good people to fight the bad people. More time was needed for the conference. More audience. More lessons taught. Failure is communications, lack of it.
It was the first time I heard of "Deferred Prosecution" an arrangement the Justice Department cuts protecting Defendants from harsher treatment, adding to the puzzlement why Wall Streeter's continue to be "Too Big To Jail." It's just that Wall Streeters can afford to hire better lawyers than Main Street'rs and Felons. Bottom line. The DOJ turns a perp walk in to a cupcake walk, in Manolos or Guccis on the way to voting, an abuse of the regulatory system. Facts don't get made public or challenged in the courts.
The clowns get sent in, instead of the cops. Potential prosecution of involved executives is deferred, exacting penalties if the executives do not live up to the compliance requirement. That is, if the DOJ checks back.
The industry once known as media died 2008. What was left, some say are the hacks, the floaters working communications with attitude rather than skill is a day and time that technology makes media out of every person with a cell phone, with Twitter, youtube, Instagram, facebook, snapchat, periscope- all viable ways to get the word out. Outreach communication failed with no signs giving guidance on coordinated # messages NASAA Spring Conference attendees could hashtag. There were no irritating ‘like us on facebook’ requests. Nothing to connect the dots, to take on the S.R.O., to address the lawyers, the judges, to take crimes against investment advisors to cops instead of getting lost in the regulatory system. No social media to support the NASAA Spring Conference themed to protect elders with Susan Collins and Claire McCaskills bill on Elder Fraud. Nothing.
NASAA is off-track of the NASAA primary goal “to advocate and act for the protection of investors, especially those who lack the expertise, experience and resources to protect their own interests. We are driven by our conviction that every investor deserves protection and an even break, and that the welfare of investors must not be sacrificed in the process of capital formation.”
Until NASAA walks the walk, the investor is on their own.