Finra barred WFG broker for selling customers a Ponzi scheme

A former WFG Investments broker was banned by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. after recommending customers invest in a Ponzi scheme. The broker, Stuart G. Dickinson, was barred from the securities industry and ordered to pay $924,000 in restitution to seven customers, according to a default decision notice released by Finra on Friday. The notice said that Mr. Dickinson did not conduct reasonable due diligence on ATM Financial Services (ATMF) and “missed key red flags that signaled fraud.” His oversight led investors to lose $1.02 million. In 2007, Mr. Dickinson sold more than $1 million in limited partnership interests in ATM Alliance (ATMA). Through ATMA, Mr. Dickinson contracted with ATMF to manage and service ATMs at several locations. In 2008, Mr. Dickinson found out that ATMF did not use ATMA funds to purchase ATM machines, but in fact, used the funds to pay fictitious returns to earlier investors, according to Finra. Mr. Dickinson should have recognized there was something amiss when he was shown partly handwritten ATM retail space lease agreements and incomplete and inconsistent performance history of the ATMs, Finra said. WFG did not immediately return a phone call for comment. Mr. Dickinson could not be reached. Mr. Dickinson was terminated by WFG in 2013 and is not currently associated with any other Finra-regulated firm. He had been with WFG since 2005, according to his BrokerCheck profile . Prior to WFG Investments, Mr. Dickinson worked at Linsco/Private Ledger Corp., in Boston, the forerunner to LPL Financial, and Bear, Stearns & Co., in New York. Before Bear Stearns, he worked at Merrill Lynch. Mr. Dickinson has two customer disputes listed on his BrokerCheck profile, that have been settled. He also has a regulatory dispute from Texas in 1982. WFG Investments Inc. , is a midsized independent broker-dealer based in Dallas, Texas.