Longtime Florida regulator William Reilly has joined compliance consultant Oyster Consulting LLC.
Mr. Reilly will remain in Tallahassee, Fla., and work with broker-dealer and investment adviser clients of Glen Allen, Va.-based Oyster.
A 32-year veteran of Florida's bureau of securities, Mr. Reilly is well-known for leading the broker-dealer section of the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc., which represents state regulators.
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Of the 25 years he was involved with NASAA, Mr. Reilly said he served as chairman or vice chairman of the section for about 15 years.
Mr. Reilly also has led examiner training programs for Florida and NASAA.
He gained expertise in training examiners after Florida lawmakers approved 56 new examiner positions following the collapse of ESM Government Securities Inc. of Fort Lauderdale in 1982, a fraud that cost cities and other investors around the country some $300 million.
“We went from a staff of 24 in Tallahassee to 80 to 90 overnight,” Mr. Reilly said.
So what's the biggest risk brokerage firms face currently?
“The one thing [would be] the area of selling away,” he said. Selling-away violations often involve failure-to-supervise charges and fraud, Mr. Reilly said.
“In the last few years, many firms that have had selling-away problems are no longer in business” after having to rescind trades and pay arbitration awards, he said.
