SEC charges former J.P. Turner trader with entering fake trades

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a former employee of J.P. Turner & Co. with entering fictitious sales of market-linked certificates of deposit in order to avoid the firm's inventory limitations for the fixed-income products. Seeking an injunction and civil penalties, the SEC charged that Salvadore D. Palermo paid above-market prices to the firm's customers to acquire the securities and then held them in inventory. To avoid J.P. Turner's inventory limitations, he entered dozens of fictitious trades over a seven-month period, beginning in August 2014, the SEC charged. As a result of the sham transactions, the SEC said, the firm's trade blotters and asset and revenue account balances were incorrect, causing J.P. Turner to file inaccurate monthly regulatory reports between August 2014 and February 2015. Mr. Palermo was discharged by J.P. Turner in July 2015 and joined First Southern Securities in Alpharetta, Ga. (More: Money markets undergo sea change)​