Florida advisor Ami Forte has called out Morgan Stanley, her former employer, for entangling her in an ongoing dispute over excessive trading in the accounts of Home Shopping Network founder Roy M. Speer.

After her former branch manager was barred from the brokerage industry on Tuesday, Forte denied churning Speer’s accounts and questioned Morgan Stanley and Finra’s motives in the case.

Forte, formerly a representative in Morgan Stanley’s Palm Harbor, Fla., branch, was identified as “AF” in a Finra filing alleging that her former supervisor, Terry Lee McCoy, failed to supervise trading within Speer’s accounts as the client’s mental status declined.

For her part, Forte says she neither executed nor had knowledge of some 2,000 trades over a nine-month period from September 2011 to July 2012, which generated $9 million in commissions for Morgan Stanley. Speer, 79 years old at the time, died in August 2012 after struggling with dementia.

“I engaged in no wrongdoing of any kind and neither entered nor directed any of the trades that Finra has deemed inappropriate. Morgan Stanley has led a campaign to tarnish my reputation for the misconduct of others in its employ, and I deeply resent and reject the allegations that have been made against me,” said Forte in a released comment.

On Tuesday, Finra published a letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent barring McCoy from associating with any Finra member and levying a $75,000 fine without admitting or denying the charges. Finra’s filing states that Forte “directed another registered representative” to conduct the trades. That’s a false statement, according to Robert J. Pearl of the Naples, Fla.-based Pearl Law Firm.

Pearl says the trades were executed by another Morgan Stanley advisor, which Finra identifies as “CL,” also known as Charles Lawrence, another representative in the Palm Harbor office.

“She was not directing the trading by Chuck Lawrence,” said Pearl. “I don’t know why Finra would agree to something like this because they know that Ami was not trading in these accounts.”

Finra’s filing indicates that Lawrence placed trades immediately following the receipt of recommendations from Morgan Stanley’s trading desk without taking the time to consult with Speer. In a Tuesday press release on behalf of Forte, Pearl argues that Lawrence would not have had time to consult with Forte, either, and she should never have been identified in the Finra filing.

According to Pearl, Speer engaged Morgan Stanley to run highly active strategies, frequently trading within his accounts.

“These were heavily traded accounts for years. Roy Speer considered himself an expert in calling markets and he liked to engage in heavy trading,” said Pearl. “Morgan Stanley offered him the opportunity to open up managed accounts so he would not be charged based on the trading within his accounts, but he wanted control of his investments. I don’t think any of the news reports have mentioned that these accounts made money, despite the commissions and heavy trading.”

Furthermore, Pearl asserts that McCoy knew about the trading within Speer’s accounts, as did his supervisors.

Numerous reports indicate that Forte engaged in a romantic relationship with Mr. Speer. While Pearl did not confirm or deny the affair, he did note that Forte stepped away from managing and trading within Speer’s accounts in 2007, at least four years before the excessive trading alleged in Finra’s complaint took place.

“Ami knew these accounts were heavily traded and that they had been for years, but she gave up trading responsibility years before this happened,” said Pearl. “Chuck Lawrence was handling the accounts, with Terry McCoy, each of whom were meeting with the customer three times a week in McCoy’s office.”

It was Speer’s widow, Lynnda Speer, with whom he “did not have a good relationship,” according to Pearl, who complained about the excessive trades, culminating in litigation against Morgan Stanley with Forte and McCoy as co-defendants.

Forte also separated herself from Morgan Stanley’s efforts to revamp Speer’s estate plan, says Pearl.

Instead, it was McCoy who allegedly participated in drafting a new plan that Pearl says would have appointed him trustee of two large trusts after Speer’s death, generating millions of dollars in fees, while reducing his widow’s inheritance.

“All of this is known to Morgan Stanley,” said Pearl. “They also know that this is not the first time that Terry McCoy attempted to have himself named as a beneficiary in a customer’s estate plan.”

Pearl also questioned the timing of Finra’s filing, dated June 13.

In March 2018, Finra awarded $34 million to Speer’s estate after arbitrators found that Morgan Stanley’s representatives were responsible for excessive trading when dementia hampered his ability to make financial decisions. During the arbitration, Morgan Stanley assured Forte that her job was safe, according to Pearl.

Days after the arbitration award was announced, Morgan Stanley fired Forte, yet McCoy faced no such internal disciplinary action. Instead, McCoy was able to enter into a separation agreement with the brokerage that includes a cooperation agreement, according to Pearl, allowing him to leave the brokerage industry with a clean U5, the form used to terminate a representative’s registration.

“Morgan Stanley has never owned up to the fact that their termination of Ami Forte is based on nothing in violation of their own internal standards,” said McCoy. “They discriminated against her because she’s a woman, none of this would have happened to her had she been a man.”

Morgan Stanley is seeking payment from Forte to cover part of the Speer estate’s arbitration award. She is currently embroiled in an arbitration case over the firm’s claims, also seeking damages for what she calls wrongful termination.

According to Finra’s BrokerCheck website, Forte’s record as a registered representative is clean, aside from the Speer complaint.

Pearl further argues that Finra’s fine and bar against McCoy is a toothless punishment, as the former branch manager is elderly and infirm.

Pearl indicates that Morgan Stanley may also be funding McCoy’s legal counsel.

Neither Morgan Stanley nor Finra responded to calls for comment as of Friday morning.

In March of this year, Forte joined Pinnacle Investments as chief development officer and a financial advisor.