A former mortgage bond salesman at Jefferies & Co is banned from operating in the securities industry for three months for allegedly misleading customers about the prices of mortgage bonds.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Kevin Blaney, who served as a managing director at Jefferies until he resigned in 2014, was also fined $30,000 for his alleged actions during his time with the company.
From Bloomberg:
Blaney “made a false statement to a customer, or failed to correct a statement made to a customer” on six occasions between January 2009 and December 2011, the industry-funded regulator said. Blaney was allowed to resign from Jefferies in August 2014 following an investigation into communications he made to buy and sell residential mortgage bonds, according to Finra records.
The Bloomberg article notes that Blaney’s time at Jefferies overlapped with Jesse Litvak’s time with the company.
Two years ago, Litvak, also a former managing director at Jefferies, received a two-year jail sentence for lying to clients about mortgage bonds.
At the time, Litvak was one of the only people convicted of fraud in relation to a $20 billion Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
In March 2014, Litvak was found guilty of 15 criminal counts of securities fraud and making false statements.
Litvak appealed his conviction, an effort that proved successful late last year when an appeals court overturned his conviction.
According to the Bloomberg report, Litvak is facing a new trial in January.
As for Blaney, the Bloomberg report provides additional details about what led to his ban:
Finra investigators found that Blaney misrepresented the prices of bonds Jefferies bought or could have bought, and also inaccurately claimed the investment bank was trying to buy bonds it already owned, the regulator said. He also didn’t correct a Jefferies trader who misled a customer about a bond price, Finra said, without identifying that person.
