The securities fraud attorneys at Meyer Wilson are currently investigating claims against former broker Gary E. Donovan (CRD# 866235)
According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), former Sagepoint Financial, Inc. broker Gary E. Donovan has been permanently barred “from acting as a broker or otherwise associating with firms that sell securities to the public.”
According to his BrokerCheck report, Donovan was fired from Sagepoint Financial after he allegedly failed to follow the firm’s policies involving interactions with stock promoters and sales of unlisted securities.
Donovan signed a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent consenting to FINRA’s sanctions and findings without admitting or denying those findings.
FINRA alleged that Donovan, based on communications with a stock promoter, used personal, customer, and family member’s accounts to place limit buy orders for Mix 1 Life, Inc. (MIXX), an illiquid OTC security between August 28, 2014 and May 11, 2015.
During that period, Donovan made around 180 buy orders for MIXX in 90 customer accounts, when he only had the discretion to trade in 83 of them. FINRA claims that Donovan should have known, or knew that his buy orders were being matched with identical sell orders in order to facilitate stock manipulation. For 21 days during that period, he allegedly placed 100 limit orders which amounted to more than 20% of the market for MIXX.
According to FINRA, Donovan’s orders stabilized the price of MIXX at approximately $6.00 per share, and when he stopped dealing with the stock promoter, the price per share dropped to less than $1.00, losing most of his, his family’s, and his customer’s investments.
If you lost money investing with former Sagepoint Financial broker Gary Donovan, contact our securities fraud lawyers at Meyer Wilson today. We offer free consultations to discuss your potential claim, and we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis so you won’t owe us any money unless we help recover your losses.
