Washington, DC— FINRA announced today that it has fined GunnAllen Financial, Inc.

FINRA barred Alexis J. Rivera, the former head trader, in connection with the trade allocation scheme, in December FINRA found that in and , the firm, acting through Rivera, engaged in a "cherry picking" scheme in which Rivera allocated profitable stock trades to his wife's personal account instead of to the accounts of firm customers.

Rivera was barred in December One such area was the investment banking department, where the firm's failures resulted in an absence of procedures to prevent the misuse of material, non-public information.

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During the same period, GunnAllen failed to inform its own compliance department of the investment banking activities in which the firm was involved. FINRA also sanctioned GunnAllen for failing to report to FINRA that its parent firm had entered into a consulting contract with an individual who had been previously barred by FINRA.

In addition, the firm was sanctioned for failing to preserve e-mails and instant messages, for failing to implement an adequate AML compliance program and for supervisory and complaint reporting deficiencies. Supervisory deficiencies included a failure to ensure that markups and commissions charged on equity transactions were reasonable.

In reviewing markups on equity transactions, the firm did little more than ensure that commission charges did not exceed 5 percent. GunnAllen and McMahon settled these matters without admitting or denying the allegations, but consented to the entry of FINRA's findings.

Investors can obtain more information about, and the disciplinary record of, any FINRA-registered broker or brokerage firm by using FINRA's BrokerCheck. FINRA makes BrokerCheck available at no charge.

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