Appeals court sides with Finra critic

A federal appeals court says former Finra board member Richard Goble is not guilty of fraud, but remains liable for aiding and abetting violations. In an opinion released Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overturned in part a district court decision from April that found Mr. Goble guilty of securities fraud, and aiding and abetting the fraud. The district court permanently barred Mr. Goble from the securities industry and fined him $7,500. "We remand to the [lower] district court to consider … whether Goble's aiding and abetting violations … alone warrant the lifetime bar," the appeals court wrote. In 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Mr. Goble for engaging in a sham money market transaction to free up funds in a customer reserve account and thereby save his struggling firm, North American Clearing Inc. Mr. Goble's attorney, Robert L. Sirianni, Jr. of the Brownstone PA law firm, was not immediately available late Tuesday. Finra spokeswoman Nancy Condon declined comment. Mr. Goble, an outspoken Finra critic, had success in running independent candidates for the Finra board and district committees, and urged member firms to vote against the 2007 merger with the NYSE regulatory unit. That same year, Mr. Goble won a spot on the Finra board. He resigned his board seat after the SEC charged him. North American, which at one time cleared trades for about 40 small broker-dealer firms, was later liquidated.