Misappropriation of client data!! Mind your info when a Planner changes firms!!

Sources: Google, SEC.gov, Finra.org, Investment News

Recent report from Finra.org reports a former rep from Indiana transferred names, Social Security numbers, and other information associated with over 1,300 customers to his personal email accounts. He did not inform his clients, his employer, nor his future employer, which is a blatant violation of rules.

Finra penalized an ex-broker with OneAmerica whom it found transmitted confidential client data from his former firm to personal email accounts and later to a new employer.

Jason Michael Poschinger, who was based in Indiana, has consented to a six-month suspension and a $20,000 fine following a settlement with Finra announced March 27.

****He neither admitted nor denied the findings but agreed to the sanctions and the entry of findings for the purpose of resolving the proceeding. ****

His conduct violated Finra Rule 2010, which requires members and associated persons to observe high standards of commercial honor, as well as Rule 3210, which governs outside securities accounts.

Between September and November 2021, while registered with OneAmerica Securities, Poschinger transferred nonpublic personal customer information from firm systems to personal email accounts he controlled, Finra said. The data included names, Social Security numbers, account numbers, contact information, and account values for more than 1,300 customers, according to the order.

“Poschinger did not inform OneAmerica Securities that he was taking the information and he did not give the customers notice and opportunity to prevent the transfer of their information,” the order stated.

After OneAmerica Securities discovered his misconduct and terminated him in November 2021, Poschinger joined Pruco Securities, according to his BrokerCheck record. On his first day with Pruco, Finra said he forwarded the client data from his personal email accounts to his new business email and submitted it to operations personnel. He used the information to identify and contact clients he hoped would transfer their business to him.

At OneAmerica’s request, Poschinger signed an affidavit days after leaving the firm, attesting that he had deleted the confidential data and would not use it after his departure. “Each of the foregoing representations… were false,” Finra wrote. “Poschinger in fact possessed a significant amount of Confidential Information.”

Finra also found that Poschinger made false statements in documents submitted to Pruco Securities, which required him to certify that the client data he brought with him was either publicly available or independently known to him. “The customer information had been copied and taken from OneAmerica Securities,” Finra stated.

Additional violations stemmed from Poschinger’s failure to disclose outside brokerage accounts to his former employer. Between 2018 and 2021, he opened multiple accounts at other broker-dealers and a separate financial institution without prior written consent from OneAmerica Securities, as required by Finra rules.