Finra expels Dakota Securities for allowing suspended broker to work

Hearing panel also permanently bars broker Bruce Zipper for ignoring suspension.

A Finra hearing panel has permanently barred broker Bruce Zipper of Miami, Fla., for continuing to conduct the business of his one-man firm, Dakota Securities, while serving a three-month suspension.

The panel also expelled the firm from membership in the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for not adequately supervising Mr. Zipper, allowing him to do business while suspended — and later while disqualified — and for falsifying books and records.

Finra said the decision resolves charges brought by its enforcement department last November.

In April 2016, Zipper entered into a settlement with Finra, agreeing to pay a $5,000 fine and serve a three-month suspension for failing to disclose three outstanding judgments. At the time, Zipper was a principal at Dakota Securities, a small broker-dealer that he operated as a self-described “one-man shop.”

After agreeing to the settlement, Mr. Zipper notified Finra that he was bringing in another broker to conduct firm business during his suspension. Yet after his suspension started in May 2016, Finra said that Mr. Zipper never stopped doing business with the firm’s clearing broker and generally operating the firm.