The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) has filed a temporary cease and desist order against a Washington D.C.-based financial company to stop fraudulent behavior involving the sale of $18 million in promissory notes to 58 investors, including many NFL and NBA players, Finra announced today.
Finra filed a complaint against Success Trade Securities and its CEO and president, Fuad Ahmed, for fraud in the sale of promissory notes issued by the firm’s parent company, Success Trade Inc., in which Ahmed holds a majority ownership.
Ahmed and the company agreed to the cease and desist order.
Success Trade Securities is an online broker-dealer that operates through Just2Tade and Low Trades, Finra says. Finra’s complaint alleges that Ahmed and Success Trade Securities misrepresented that they were raising $5 million through the sale of promissory notes and continued to make this representation as the sales exceeded the original offering.
Most of the notes promised to pay an annual interest rate of 12.5 percent on a monthly basis over three years and some promised interest as high as 26 percent.
Ahmed, according to Finra, made unsecured loans to himself from the money and used funds to pay off new investors. It does not specify what the money from the promissory notes was supposed to have been used for.