Finra bars ex-Cetera rep who used clients’ money for own family's investments

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. Tuesday barred a former broker at Cetera Advisors who used customer checks totaling $45,100 not for the clients but to buy mutual fund shares for someone from her own family.

The broker, Marianne O'Shee Smith, is a 34-year veteran of the securities industry and had been registered with Cetera Advisors from 2016 to 2021, according to her BrokerCheck report.

Cetera Advisors reported to Finra last June that Smith had been discharged, or fired, in connection with the firm's investigation into her depositing of customer checks into accounts maintained by a third party, according to the Finra settlement, which Smith agreed to without admitting or denying the findings.

An attorney for Smith, Vander Beatty, an associate with Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass, didn't respond to a phone call by deadline. A spokesperson for Cetera Financial Group, one of the largest networks of broker-dealers in the industry, declined to comment.

According to Finra, from January 2018 to February 2021, three Cetera Advisors customers gave Smith 10 checks totaling $45,100 that were payable to a mutual fund company affiliated with the firm.

The customers, all of whom were senior citizens, directed Smith to use the checks to fund their mutual fund investments, according to Finra. Instead, she used the checks, without the customers' knowledge or consent, to purchase mutual fund shares for a family member.

After the discovery of Smith's misconduct, the customers were reimbursed in full, Finra noted.