Finra suspends financial advisor facing child sex charge

Finra on Thursday suspended for five months a long-time financial advisor, Thomas Vernor, who failed to disclose to his broker-dealer at the time, LPL Financial, that he had been charged in April 2022 with "sex abuse" of a child who was less than 12 years old, according to his Securities and Exchange Commission Investment Adviser Public Disclosure profile.

Vernor was also fined $5,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

Vernor is based in Huntsville, Alabama, according to his BrokerCheck profile, and started in the securities industry in 1984 with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. He was registered with LPL from 2005 until this March.

The state felony charge is pending, according to the SEC profile. Tuesday morning, a clerk at the Circuit Court of Madison County, Alabama, confirmed the charge and said Vernor will return to court in August. Vernor's attorney, Robert Tuten, did not immediately respond to a call Tuesday morning seeking comment about the matter.

When brokers or financial advisors are charged with criminal matters, they must update their work histories with those allegations or run afoul of industry rules.

According to Vernor's settlement with Finra, he didn't update his work history, known as a Form U4, to disclose the felony charge, but the settlement didn't specify the nature of any allegation. Vernor agreed to Finra's findings without admitting or denying them.