Former IFS broker barred for fraudulent, private deals

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. has barred Francis Joseph Gendlek, a former broker with IFS Securities, for "fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions and private securities transactions" that cost investors $620,000, Finra said. From January 2006 through September 2013, Mr. Gendlek participated in private securities transactions without obtaining approval from his firm, TFS Securities, where he also failed to disclose an outside business activity, violating Finra rules in both cases. Mr. Gendlek was affiliated with TFS Securities from 2006 to 2014 and joined IFS Securities in 2015. He was permitted to resign from IFS in July 2016. The actions that led to Mr. Gendlek's bar stemmed from his involvement in a real estate development company he formed and for which he solicited funds from his brokerage firm customers without his firm's knowledge. In 2013, the real estate company filed for bankruptcy, leaving unpaid creditors and investors in its wake. Mr. Gendlek, a resident of East Brunswick, N.J., at the time he was affiliated with IFS, began his securities career in 1982 and worked at 13 firms through 2016.