Fifty-one current or former financial planner professionals have been sanctioned by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards for conduct ranging from customer complaints to civil judgments to  criminal matters , the board announced today.

The sanctions, effective immediately or on the date noted in each case, include public censures, suspensions, temporary bars, permanent bars and revocations of the right to use the CFP marks, the CFP Board said. Under the board's disciplinary code, permanent bars apply to planners who do not currently hold the CFP mark, while revocations apply to CFP holders.

CFP Board said last year that it had strengthened its enforcement program and had planned to complete background checks on all its 87,000-plus professionals to detect potential misconduct that previously had not been reported to the CFP Board. So far, it said it has completed the background checks and opened “historical Investigations” into the conduct of 1,266 professionals.

More than three-fourths of the public sanctions announced today involves misconduct that can include regulatory actions, firm terminations, customer complaints, arbitrations, and civil court litigation that involve professional conduct, criminal matters, bankruptcies, civil judgments, and tax liens, the board noted.

Among the sanctioned individuals, six were censured, 13 received administrative suspension, six were suspended, eight were temporarily barred, five were barred and the rights of 13 to use the CFP marks were revoked.

John Sullivan of Ellicott City, Md., was permanently barred in July from applying for or obtaining the right to use the CFP certification marks. Sullivan refused to respond to CFP Board’s requests for “information and Notice of Failure to Cooperate” regarding an investigation into his 2020 termination from his firm after he allegedly accepted a loan from an advisory customer against firm policies and filed an incorrect compliance report regarding the loan.

The board permanently revoked Robert A. Dow’s rights to use the CFP marks in May. Dow, of Melbourne, Fla., did not answer the board’s complaint alleging that he violated the rules of conduct based upon his “two misdemeanor convictions for alcohol related criminal conduct and his allegedly intentional misstatements on his 2018 Ethics Declaration provided to CFP Board.”

Also receiving a permanent revocation is Daryll D. Claxton of Havertown, Pa. The board said Claxton, who in November 2020 received an interim suspension after the Pennsylvania authorities charged him with 50 counts of child pornography, three counts of criminal attempt to dissemination photo/film of child sex acts and other related charges, failed to provide evidence to the CFP Board that he was in compliance with the discretionary interim suspension order issued by the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission and that he was no longer using the CFP certification marks.  His revocation became effective as of August 1.

Thomas A. Walsh of Sarasota, Fla., was publicly censured after he consented to findings that in April 2016 he accepted transaction instructions from a client via email, sold securities from a client’s account, and later learned that the client’s email had been hacked. “This conduct was contrary to his employer’s policies and procedures because he executed sales and effected wire transfers without verbally confirming that he was authorized to do so,” the board said, adding  that he also lied to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority about his termination from his employer for his conduct.

Also receiving a public censure is Jason S. John of Powell, Ohio. The board said John admitted that he filed a single personal bankruptcy in April 2019 and admitted that the bankruptcy matter demonstrated “an inability to manage responsibly his or his business’s financial affairs.

Among those receiving suspensions is Mark J. Stevens of Roswell, Ga. He was in part suspended for one year and a day of his right to use the CFP certification marks. The board said Stevens had four outstanding federal tax liens issued against him between 2009 and 2012 by the Internal Revenue Service that total over $200,000. The board said the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission also “determined that Stevens has no plan in place to repay the tax liens and is currently listed as ‘uncollectible’ by the IRS. The commission also found that Mr. Stevens’s actions show a pattern of inability to manage his personal finances in such a way to withhold sufficient taxes, make yearly adjustments to tax withholdings to meet his tax liability, or to pay off the balance of his tax liability.”

The complete list of those disciplined is as follows: