Finra bars broker who sold Future Income Payments Ponzi

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. Thursday barred a broker who formerly worked at NYLife Securities Inc. and sold Future Income Payments, an alleged Ponzi scheme.

The broker, Kari M. Bracy, worked at NYLife Securities from 2009 to 2019. According to her profile on BrokerCheck, Ms. Bracy was under investigation by Finra as a result of her sale of the investments. Finra barred her, however, because she did not appear for testimony related to the investigation, a violation of securities industry rules.

Ms. Bracy agreed to the Finra settlement without admitting or denying its allegations.

According to her BrokerCheck profile, she faced one customer complaint stemming from the sale of Future Income Payments. The complaint was settled for $80,000, according to Finra.

[More: Texas pulls license of adviser who sold Future Income Payments]

Ms. Bracy did not immediately return a call on Friday afternoon for comment.

According to the Justice Department, Future Income Payments actively recruited pension holders who were desperate for money, including many veterans of the U.S. armed forces.

Future Income Payments diverted new investor funds flowing into the business to fund payments to earlier investors in order to keep the scheme operational, which is the definition of a Ponzi scheme. When the scheme ceased doing business in early 2018, investors were owed approximately $300 million. 

[More: Promissory notes, Ponzi schemes top investor threats for 2020, says NASAA]