FINRA has been trying to contact a veteran Florida broker, Jason Foley, currently in jail after being arrested in January 2025 who is currently facing a felony charge of sexual battery.
FINRA was looking for information from Foley after his termination from Wilmington Capital Securities, the broker-dealer where he was registered, according to BrokerCheck, from August 2025 to April 2025, months after his arrest.
FINRA routinely investigates advisors and broker who have been terminated or fired by their firms; in such cases, when advisors or brokers don’t cooperate, they eventually get barred from working in the securities industry.
What’s unusual in the case of Foley, who started working in the securities industry in 2002, is that the regulator’s search for the former advisor led FINRA to prison.
According to a complaint filed yesterday by FINRA, the regulator three times last year attempted to reach Foley by letter, both to his home and to an unnamed jail in Florida.
After the final attempt a year ago, FINRA received a USPS certified mail request returned by the Florida jail with a handwritten note stating: “Refused by inmate.”
Dirk R. Weed, Foley’s attorney, did not return a call Tuesday morning to comment.
“Bad guys who do bad stuff don’t get a chance to make excuses,” said Scott Silver, a plaintiff’s attorney. “In this case, the broker can’t deny the service of these notices. Even in jail your obligation to FINRA and the industry doesn’t stop as an advisor.”
“Just because you engage in criminal conduct doesn’t give you the right to disregard notices or letters from any regulator,” Silver said. “Kudos FINRA for tracking this guy down.”
The St. Petersburg, Fla. SWAT team arrested Foley, 48, in January 2025 at his apartment, according to a press release at the time by the St. Petersburg Police Department.
“Investigators from an out-of-state law enforcement agency notified St. Petersburg Police that Foley was connected to their investigation,” according to the release. “Their suspect and Foley had been discussing plans online to kidnap, sexually assault, and murder a child. The child does not live in Florida.”
At the time, the ex-broker faced multiple charges of possession of child pornography and counts of transmission of child pornography, according to the release. He was also charged with various of conspiracy, including committing first degree murder.
According to court records for Pinellas County, Foley was charged a month later with one count of felony sexual battery.
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