Many investors are unaware of the legal recourse available to them after losing money due to securities broker fraud and/or negligence. The truth is that investors who have lost money in this fashion may be entitled to damages. The law firm of Oakes & Fosher is interested in hearing from investors who believe this may be them.
Oakes & Fosher is presently investigating the possible misconduct of former securities broker Francis Gendlek. According to his publicly available FINRA BrokerCheck report, Francis Gendlek has been the subject of a FINRA sanction.
Francis Gendlek operated most recently as a New Jersey based securities broker. He worked in the securities industry for thirty-two years. During his career, he was registered with thirteen different securities firms.
His Registrations
- Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1982-1985)
- MetLife Securities (1982-1985)
- BNL Securities (1986-1987)
- Invest Financial Corporation (1987-1990)
- First Hanover Securities (1990)
- Wealth Builders Equity Corporation (1990-1991)
- Independent Financial Securities (1991-1995)
- North American Management (1996)
- Walnut Street Securities (1996-2002)
- Sammons Securities Company (2002-2004)
- ING Financial Partners (2004-2006)
- TFS Securities (2006-2014)
- IFS Securities (2015-2016)
The Allegations
Francis Gendlek’s publicly available FINRA BrokerCheck report shows that he was sanctioned by FINRA in February 2018. The findings in this matter state that he formed a private a company in order to solicit investments for real estate development projects. Gendlek solicited funds from six individuals, five of which were customers of his member firm, to invest in promissory notes backed by mortgages. He solicited a total amount of $543,000 from them so that he could fund the purchase of a rental property in New Jersey by some friends of his. However, his friends were never able to repay the full mortgage. They only paid $355,000, leaving a substantial $188,000 unpaid. Despite this, Francis Gendlek assured the investors that he received the debt paid in full. Since, he did not have the full amount to repay all of his investor’s principal investments, he allegedly convinced three of them to roll over their notes into a new investment as opposed to receiving their principals back in cash. When some of the investors eventually demanded that $133,000 of their principal back, Gendlek allegedly solicited additional funds from some of the other investors in order to repay that amount. Doing this is what is known as a Ponzi scheme. Due to these alleged actions, Francis Gendlek was barred by FINRA from acting as a securities broker in any fashion.
Ponzi Schemes
An individual, or group of individuals, running a Ponzi scheme falsifies information being presented to investors to give the appearance that capital is growing, when in fact it is not. Instead, the individual repays investors with money coming in from new investors, or from additional funds received from old investors–as was the case here. This continues until the entire thing collapse, as it did for Francis Gendlek.
Oakes & Fosher Can Help
Oakes & Fosher dedicates its entire legal practice to helping investors across the nation. If you, or someone you know, have lost money investing with Francis Gendlek, please contact Oakes & Fosher for a free and private consultation.
