The wheels of justice grind awfully slow in financial services. Thus I read with satisfaction in this morning’s Wall Street Journal that Beverly Hills broker Bambi Holzer has been deprived of her securities license by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The news comes a mere four and a half years after I edited a Forbes story about Holzer titled “Beware of Your Broker.” In that article, my former colleague Emily Lambert profiled how Holzer had cast herself as a media darling, dispensing sage financial advice through the likes of the Today show, NBC Nightly News and USA Today. All this despite the fact that Holzer had already been the subject of 54 customer complaints that had resulted in her and her employers shelling out a combined $11.6 million in settlements since 1990.
“Holzer’s continued prominence should serve as a warning to investors,” the story cautioned. “Despite the fierce criticism showered on securities regulators lately for failing to protect investors from Bernard Madoff and other financial predators, brokers with troubled pasts are prowling around by the thousands.”
They still are. It’s a drum the Journal has been beating on repeatedly of late. “More than 5,000 Stockbrokers From Expelled Firms Still Selling Securities” stated one of its headlines earlier this month. Disheartening as that news is, it’s nothing new.
Finra cited Holzer in its October 18 disciplinary complaint for several alleged infractions, including lying to regulators and recommending that an 86-year-old widow and a divorced mother of three buy high-risk securities in a company named Provident Shale Royalties 8 LLC, which later went bankrupt. The industry-funded regulator suspended Holzer’s license and said it’s seeking further penalties, including a possible bar from practicing in the securities industry.
“It seems a lot worse than it actually is,” Holzer told the Journal, declining further comment.
Really? A Journal analysis of more than 550,000 brokers’ records shows Holzer among the top 10 in the number of customer complaints, its story adds.
The real eye-popper to me, however, is that Finra’s website lists 64 customer complaints and five regulatory cases involving Holzer, dating back to at least 1991. That means the vast majority of complaints against her have been out in the open for years, as they were when Emily reported about them for Forbes. Where were the financial cops? Asleep on the beat is where. As I said in my last blog post, an awful lot of wrongdoing still thrives out in the open on Wall Street. Sadly, it often costs honest, hard-working people their life’s savings.
*****
Neil Weinberg is the editor-in-chief of American Banker. The views expressed are his own.
Follow me on Twitter @neilaweinberg
Follow American Banker at:
LinkedIn: American Banker