He also stressed that Ashley Vietor had been cleared of any wrongdoing by Finra. (All the arbitration claims against her were denied.)
The claims against CFD were dismissed. The company made only a brief comment to Financial Advisor magazine about the case.
“We were dismissed in that matter and of course terminated Vietor as soon as we realized the situation was taking place,” said Matthew Bahrenburg, the firm’s chief compliance officer. Dana Vietor left the firm in 2018.
In September, a cross-claim by CFD against Dana Vietor was also dismissed.
Finra barred Dana Vietor in February 2020, and wrote at the time:
“Between January 1, 2014, and November 11, 2018, Vietor engaged in the sale of promissory notes called ‘deposit agreements’ in connection with at least 40 customers totaling more than $3 million. The deposit agreements were unregistered securities, and Vietor engaged in these sales without disclosing and receiving approval from his firms for each individual private securities transaction.” The failures to disclose violated Finra rules, the regulator said.
Dana Vietor has 15 customer disputes among his BrokerCheck profile disclosures (11 of which were marked as “settled,”) and he and Ashley Vietor both worked for two firms that Finra expelled, Oakbridge Financial Services and Allied Beacon Partners.
In one of his BrokerCheck disclosures, CFD said Dana Vietor engaged in private securities transactions without providing information to the firm or seeking its approval, which was cited as a reason for his leaving CFD. In one September 2021 disclosure that announced a customer settlement for $457,000, the customer claimed Vietor sold unregistered securities, that the securities were unsuitable and that Vietor had made fraudulent misrepresentations. Another customer who made similar accusations about Vietor’s sale of unapproved investments, a practice known as “selling away,” settled for $370,000 in June 2021. In a separate complaint, a client noted that Vietor's investments were in promissory notes issued by a company Vietor controlled.
According to his LinkedIn page, Vietor is currently located in Dallas, and is listed as the president of Financial Independence Corp. According to his BrokerCheck page, he is also the chairman of SRS Holdings, which is based in Irving, Texas. Ashley Vietor Bolson is also employed by SRS, according to her BrokerCheck profile.
Ashley Vietor Bolson, is not currently registered, according to BrokerCheck, which said she had previously worked in CFD’s Independence, Iowa, office. She was let go from CFD in 2019 for providing inaccurate information in an internal review, a charge she disputes in her broker comments. She was also part of a $370,000 settlement that alleged the selling away of private placements.