Lawrence Fawcett Allegedly Churns His Customers' Accounts

The law firm of Oakes & Fosher is presently investigating the possible misconduct of former securities broker Lawrence Fawcett. According to his publicly available FINRA BrokerCheck report, Lawrence Fawcett has been the subject of multiple customer disputes.

Lawrence Fawcett operated most recently as a California based securities broker. He worked in the securities industry for five years. During his career, he was registered with six different securities firms. He is no longer working as a registered securities broker in any fashion.

His Registrations

• EKN Financial Services (2012)


• Rockwell Global Capital (2012-2013)


• John Thomas Financial (2013)


• Salomon Whitney Financial (2013-2015)


• Westpark Capital (2015-2018)

•  In April 2013, a customer alleged unauthorized trading.


• In April 2014, a customer alleged that Lawrence Fawcett executed unauthorized trades and engaged in an unauthorized margin trading. This case went to arbitration where the customer was awarded $30,000 in damages.


• Lawrence Fawcett was sanctioned by FINRA in December 2017. FINRA’s findings in this matter state that Fawcett allegedly recommended unsuitable mutual fund transactions to one of his customers. The findings show that the customer transferred mutual funds he had at another firm to his IRA account he had with Lawrence Fawcett. All of the mutual funds were comprised of Class A shares from the same fund family. Three days after the transfer, on Fawcett’s recommendation, the customer sold the mutual funds and used the proceeds, which totaled approximately $865,000, to buy Class A shares of fourteen different mutual funds from twelve different fund families. The recommendation Lawrence Fawcett made to the customer that he switch to the new mutual funds was unsuitable because the new funds’ investment objectives were not consistent with the customer’s investment objective of capital preservation. Class A shares are meant to be purchased by investors with long-term investment goals in mind. The customer in question had an investment objective meant for shorter investments. Due to his actions in this matter, Lawrence Fawcett was fined $2,500 and forced to pay $22,714 in disgorgement. He was also given a fifteen-day suspension.


• In March 2018, Lawrence Fawcett was discharged from Westpark Capital following allegations that he conducted business from a non-disclosed location as well as made false representations to the firm.


• In March 2018, Lawrence Fawcett was once again sanctioned by FINRA. The findings in this matter state that Lawrence Fawcett failed to produce the documents and information FINRA had requested of him. He also did not appear for on-the-record testimony. These were necessary in FINRA attempting to investigate Fawcett’s alleged outside business activities. For his actions in this matter, Lawrence Fawcett was barred by FINRA from acting as a broker in any fashion.


• In April of 2018, a customer alleged churning, negligence, unsuitability, unauthorized trading, and breach of contract. This case is currently pending. The client is seeking $260,000 in damages.


• In May of 2018, a customer alleged that Lawrence Fawcett excessively traded their account, churned their account, and executed unsuitable transactions. This case is currently pending. The customer is seeking $33,000 in damages.

Securities brokers, like Lawrence Fawcett, are compensated for their services by charging investors a percentage of their principal investment every time they execute a trade on their behalf. This percentage acts as the broker's commission for brokering the trade. This manner of compensation can easily lead to a fraudulent trading practice known as churning. Churning occurs when a securities broker executes trades in a customer's account excessively with the express purpose of increasing their own commissions. This act is often detrimental to investors due to the fees it causes them to incur that cause their principal investment to greatly deteriorate.

Oakes & Fosher Can Help

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 actually be entitled to damages. Oakes & Fosher dedicates its entire legal practice to helping investors across the nation. If you, or someone you know, have lost money investing with Lawrence Fawcett, please contact Oakes & Fosher for a free and private consultation. Oakes & Fosher handles cases on a contingency basis, which means there are no fees charged unless we collect for you.