After paying more than $1 million in penalties to settle actions last year from state securities regulators, a rep-owned broker-dealer, United Planners’ Financial Services of America, is now on the hook for damages to clients stemming from a rep it fired three years ago.
A three-person panel under the aegis of Finra Dispute Resolution Services, the regulator’s private arbitration group, last week ruled that clients of the ex-United Planners’ rep, Philip Riposo, were to be awarded $346,000 in damages, plus interest.
The clients, Susan Cushing and Curtis Miller, sued United Planners’ in 2023, alleging negligence, failures to supervise and warn, along with other charges, in relation to “Nationwide annuities and other securities,” according to the arbitration award, which is dated April 14.
United Planners' Financial Services of America has 500 financial advisors and close to $22 billion in client assets. Its CEO, Michael Baker, did not return a call Tuesday morning to comment about the recent arbitration loss and damages.
United Planners’ costs related to lawsuits and regulators’ actions into Riposo, who was registered with the firm from 2015 to 2022 before being fired, continue to rise.
The firm in July agreed to pay $1.06 million to clients of Riposo, who relied on phony account statements in his scheme, according to the Securities Division of the Arizona Corporation Commission. And in October, the firm agreed to pay $168,000 in fines and restitution to clients to settle similar allegations with the Massachusetts Securities Division.
“When United Planners’ fired Riposo, he continued to raise money, and that’s what my client got the Finra arbitration award for,” said Scott Silver, a plaintiff’s attorney who represented Cushing and Miller in the recent matter. “Riposo had a counter narrative, saying that he had resigned rather than fired. And my clients believed him.”
According to his BrokerCheck profile, Riposo started working in the securities industry in 1973 and worked with 10 firms before settling down at United Planners in 2015. He passed away in June 2023, according to the Massachusetts Securities Division.
Despite earlier examinations by United Planners' Financial Services, Riposo's "fraudulent activity was not uncovered until one of Riposo’s clients filed a complaint against him," according to a statement last summer by the Arizona Corporation Commission. "At that point the fraudulent scheme was uncovered, with Riposo admitting to engaging in the scheme for more than 30 years."
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