September 21, 2023 – Pelletier was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that he engaged in unauthorized trading by executing trades with a total principal value of $37,799 in a customer’s Individual Retirement Account (IRA) without the customer’s prior written or oral authorization or consent. The complaint alleges that the customer, a 62-year-old who was retiring, was the sole owner of the IRA and the only person authorized to direct trades in the account. The only securities transactions in, or distributions from, the IRA were periodic distributions of $500 to be deposited every month in a checking account the customer held jointly with his ex-wife. Each of the unauthorized trades involved Pelletier selling one of two classes of shares of a mutual fund holding in the customer’s account in order to fund a redemption and distribution. Although the customer’s ex-wife was not an authorized party on the account, Pelletier executed each of the trades after receiving verbal instructions to process the redemption solely from her. Further, the customer had not provided Pelletier or his member firm with written authorization or a power of attorney authorizing his ex-wife to direct trading in the account. For each of the trades, Pelletier decided which class of mutual fund to sell in order to generate the funds requested by the customer’s ex-wife, without obtaining authorization or consent from the customer for the trades. (FINRA Case #2021071094401)
