By the end of July 2021, the complaint said the clients had net trading losses of $968,301.82 (on a first-in-first-out basis) from the trades that Kennedy had marked as solicited alone. In addition, the account had a margin debit balance of $100,515.61. The value of the account had decreased from $781,978.85 to $162,452.83 (when $60,745.16 from trades pending settlement were included), despite net deposits of $951,515.96, for a total decrease in value of $1,571,041.98,” the complaint said.
The couple had elected to receive electronic account statements and other financial reports. But in February 2021 they lost access to the online client portal. The couple requested that Kennedy reset their password and provide them with a new one so that they could view the account. But instead of providing the new password, Kennedy told the couple that there were technical issues with the account portal.
He repeatedly lied to the couple about their account for the next six months and sent them monthly bogus statements using his personal email, Finra asserted, adding that the couple reached out to Western in September 2021 about their account, and that led to the discovery that Kennedy had been duping the clients with false account statements and false account information.
Finra said that during its investigation into Kennedy’s trading he repeatedly lied in response to the staff’s requests for information and testimony, denying sending any fake statements to the clients. He also lied that his personal email had been hacked and that an imposter had sent all but one of the fake account statements, the complaint said.
Kennedy could not be reached for comment.
He began his career in 2002 with RBC Dain Rauscher and moved to Multi-Financial Securities Corporation in 2007, where he worked for three months before moving to Financial West Group in 2009. He left in 2017 to join Western International Securities. He left Western in 2019 to join Spartan Capital Securities where he worked for five months before rejoining Western.