Paul Koch moved on to RBC Capital Markets in 2018, but he voluntarily resigned in October of last year, saying he had become the subject of a U.S. Secret Service investigation, BrokerCheck said.
Although Koch initially cooperated in the Finra investigation into his conduct, he stopped in February of this year, Finra said.
“Without admitting or denying the findings,” the regulator said in a letter this week, “Koch consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he refused to provide documents and information requested by Finra in connection with its investigation into an amended Form U5 filed by Koch’s member firm disclosing allegations that he recommended risky and unsuitable investments in various outside business ventures where his wife was a partial owner.”
Koch’s attorney, Terrence J. Fleming with Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis, responded for comment via email:
"Paul Koch voluntarily resigned from RBC and the securities industry in January 2022 to explore other opportunities," Fleming wrote. "Given that Finra was seeking a bar and nothing else, and Paul was not planning on re-entering the industry, he agreed to the bar to put this behind him."
He said Koch had no knowledge about the Secret Service investigation beyond what was reported on BrokerCheck.
The U.S. Secret Service does not comment on or acknowledge its investigations. However, a person reached at the service who asked not to be quoted said that an investigation of significant dollar amounts that crosses state lines—or that would go beyond the scope of a single local police department—could put the case under the agency’s purview.
(Correction: The original version of this story wrongly stated the team Charles Johnson played for and his position. Johnson was a defensive end with the Carolina Panthers.)