The law firm of Oakes & Fosher is presently investigating the alleged misconduct of securities broker William Athas. According to his publicly available FINRA BrokerCheck report, William Athas has been the subject of multiple customer disputes over the course of his career.
William Athas is a New York-based securities broker. He has worked in the securities industry for twenty-one years. During his career, he has been registered with twelve different securities firms.
His Registrations
- Seaboard Securities (1999-2002)
- Emmet A. Larking Company (2002-2004)
- J.P. Turner & Company (2004-2006)
- J.W. Cole Financial (2006)
- Liberty Partners Financial (2006-2010)
- Avalon Partners (2010-2011)
- Aegis Capital Corp. (2011)
- CBG Financial Group (2011-2013)
- Dalton Strategic Investment Services (2013-2014)
- Securities America (2014)
- K.C. Ward Financial (2014-2016)
- Worden Capital Management (2016-Present)
The Allegations
- In August 2001, a customer complained that they experienced losses due to margin trading committed by William Athas.
- In January 2004, a customer alleged that William Athas executed unauthorized trades and charged them excessive commissions. This case was settled for $8,600 in damages.
- In December 2005, a customer alleged that William Athas traded their account without authorization. This case was settled for $40,000 in damages.
- In July 2009, a customer alleged that William Athas churned their account, recommended unsuitable investments, managed their account negligently, breached contract, and made material misrepresentations and omissions of fact. This case was settled for $30,000 in damages.
- In July 2011, a customer alleged that William Athas churned and excessively traded their account. This case was settled for $10,000 in damages.
- In January 2017, a customer alleged William Athas churned their account, executed unauthorized trades, recommended unsuitable investments, excessively traded their account, executed unauthorized margin trades, managed their account negligently, breached contract, breached his fiduciary duty, and more. This case was settled for $95,000 in damages.
What Does This Mean?
The act of churning is highly fraudulent and often causes serious financial harm to any afflicted customers. Securities brokers receive compensation for their services by charging investors a percentage of their principal investment every time they execute a transaction on their behalf. This causes some less than scrupulous securities brokers to execute trades more frequently than necessary in order to obtain more commissions. Churning occurs when a securities broker fraudulently executes trades in a customer’s account with the express intent of increasing their own commissions even though the trades serve no financial benefit to the investor. Churning can be incredibly harmful to investors due to the fees it causes them to incur. These fees very easily rack up and drain investor principals beyond the point of seeing desired investment returns.
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 William Athas, 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.
