OK, so remember when your mother was allowed to wash out your mouth with soap for using “dirty” words? (Now I think it counts as child abuse.) I do. There is at least one person who does not.

In a recent FINRA disciplinary decision, a certain “forbidden” word was written in the opinion multiple times. I can’t recall ever seeing that word appear in a prior opinion, but it most certainly could have. The opinion is here. The interesting thing is that the word was used in quotes of statements made by the Respondent (the person whose license was in jeopardy.)

I am certainly no prude. Anyone who knows me knows that I can sling profanity with the best of them. But I make it a practice of not directing it at regulators (at least not in their presence). But this individual, who was represented by counsel and must have been embarrassed by his client’s conduct, simply let the FINRA employees have it, with both barrels and unvarnished. I don’t know WTF he was thinking.

But I can only imagine his reaction to the fact that the National Adjudicatory Council increased his fine from $12,500 to $50,000 and increased his suspension from 35 days to one year. I’ll bet he said more than WTF.

So what did we learn from this? Don’t curse at regulators, unless you’re related to one. Behave yourself in disciplinary hearings. And don’t threaten people that you will get them fired. Either get them fired or don’t. They don’t react well to mere threats. In all my time practicing, I can’t say that I’ve ever threatened a regulatory employee that I would make them lose their job. I’m thinking that they would resent that behavior. But that’s just me.

So, read the decision and let’s all say WTF together and thank our stars that we’re smarter than this one person who seems to have an anger management issue.

That’s the friggin’ view of one lawyer from Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Florida. I’m Marc “effing” Dobin. Have a great “effing” day.

I did not watch Sesame Street when I was a kid. I think I was just too old. But I love the Muppets, in part because their humor can be enjoyed on many levels. This clip popped up in something I was reading.

Now back to me…

Just a reminder that we need to laugh every day.

That’s the fuzzy view of one Lawyer from Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Florida. I’m Marc dobin

SunTrust Investment Services brokers, as I understand it, sit in banks. They wait for bank clients to come in and try to sell them securities. Generally, these clients are not experienced investors who are seeking out a stockbroker, active trading or margin accounts. They are customers who remember when CDs paid 5% per year and thought that was low.

In these low interest rate markets, it is not unusual for the average CD buyer to become a “yield hog” and look for something that is paying more than the 1 – 3% the bank is offering. These clients, for the most part, only look at current yield and don’t consider that the underlying value will fluctuate. Bank brokers have disclosures that they are required to make, but the customers frequently just don’t pay attention to them.

FINRA just ordered SunTrust Investment Services to pay $1.44 million in fines and disgorgement for unsuitable, mostly short-term, transactions in Unit Investment Trusts, Closed-End Funds and Mutual Funds. (when you click on the link, you will need to go to the last pages of the FINRA newsletter.) FINRA found that two brokers in the Maryland area were short-term trading these “packaged products” which was unsuitable.

The “packaged products” are not short-term vehicles. FINRA has pointed this out before. Branch Managers are supposed to pick this up. They are supposed to look for “red flags” indicating possible violations. In this case, the manager ignored the red flags and was suspended as a principal for six months and fined $10,000. One of the two brokers has been barred from the industry. The other broker still has charges pending.

The irony of this whole story is that these transactions last took place in 2006 and FINRA’s disciplinary system just ruled. So four years later, when one broker is gone, the manager suspended and the other broker still fighting, SunTrust pays a big penalty (for me, anyway) and moves on. That’s the cost of doing business. Will it change the way SunTrust does business, one would hope it would. But the systems were in place already and the warnings were ignored. Maybe next time?

That’s the view of one lawyer from Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Florida. I’m Marc Dobin

This is pretty far off-topic, but I have to admit that this is a good use of an iPhone. A father and his young son sent an iPhone with a broken screen into space tethered to a weather balloon. This is very cool.

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

I’m still not an iPhone fan, but at least we can say “Space Travel? There’s an app for that.”

That’s the extraterrestrial view of one lawyer from Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Florida. I’m Marc Dobin. Take me to your leader.