Securities fraud attorneys are currently investigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of doing business with Wells Fargo Advisors and James Arnold Busch. Reportedly, Busch, a former Wells Fargo advisor, recently entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) regarding alleged misappropriation of funds from brokerage customers.
The AWC states that “at relevant times, Busch worked in various branch offices of WFA located in the Firm’s affiliated bank. Many of Busch’s customers had both Wells Fargo brokerage accounts and Wells Fargo bank accounts, and Busch had access to his customers’ bank account information. From approximately 2006 to 2013, Busch utilized his customers’ bank account information to misappropriate approximately $1.3 million from approximately eight of his Wells Fargo brokerage customers, most of whom were elderly women.”
Furthermore, according to the AWC, Busch primarily used several methods to misappropriate the money. He contacted his credit card company to request payments from the Wells Fargo bank accounts of his customers to his personal credit card account, providing his credit card company with the bank account and routing numbers of his customers. Prior to 2009, he used a manual process with paper debit memos and from 2009 to 2013 he called the automated system for his credit card company. In some cases, he allegedly generated cash by liquidating securities contained in the brokerage accounts of his customers and then transferred the cash to his customers’ bank accounts before misappropriating the funds.
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority rules have established that firms must properly supervise brokers’ activities while they are registered with the firm. Because Busch was registered with Wells Fargo Advisors at the time of his alleged misconduct, the firm could be held responsible for his activities and, thus, could be ordered to compensate his clients for losses sustained for the period he was registered with the firm.
If you suffered significant losses as a result of conducting business with Busch or another Wells Fargo Advisors representative, you may be able to recover your losses through securities arbitration. To find out more about your legal rights and options, contact a stock fraud lawyer at Law Office of Christopher J. Gray, P.C. at (866) 966-9598 for a no-cost, confidential consultation.