A National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) arbitration panel found liable and ordered Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER – news) to pay Patricia McNamara a total of $192,000 for the company’s breach of fiduciary duty and failure to supervise registered representative Robert Morgart in its Sante Fe, New Mexico office.
In her claim, Patricia McNamara, a 78 year widow stated that she needed income from her account to pay for living expenses and to support two mentally disabled children. At the hearing Patricia McNamara, proved that Merrill Lynch had recommended securities in technology and Internet related companies that were unsuitable based on her financial needs and station in life.
Some of the securities purchased by Merrill Lynch including CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI – news), Exodus Communications (Nasdaq: EXDS – news), InfoSpace, Inc. (Nasdaq: INSP – news) and Inktomi (Nasdaq: INKT – news) have come under scrutiny following New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s investigation of Merrill Lynch and Internet analyst Henry Blodget.
The firm represents customers of Merrill Lynch and other brokerage firms who have money due to wrongful conduct of the brokerage firms including misleading analyst recommendations.
Mr. Bakhtiari represents clients in securities disputes before FINRA (NASD, NYSE), state and federal courts. In June 2019, Mr. Bakhtiari was nominated to serve as a public member of the Discovery Task Force Committee (DTFC) of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) which is the advisory group, established in conjunction with a directive from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission that reviews substantive issues relating to discovery in arbitration proceedings that are conducted under the auspices of the FINRA Code of Arbitration Procedure.