Ardsley investment rep suspended for forging client signature

Former Ardsley investment adviser Michael J. Muratore has been suspended from the industry for two years and fined $25,000 for forgery and other misdeeds.

Muratore consented to the findings and sanctions in February, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority publicized the case in its May monthly disciplinary report.

Muratore, of Eastchester, represented J.P. Morgan Securities, LPL Financial LLC and Financial Resources Group Investment Services LLC, from 2014 to March 2021, at offices in Ardsley.

FINRA, a non-governmental regulatory agency that oversees securities brokers and advisers, began investigating Muratore after J.P. Morgan fired him in 2019 and reported its reasons to the organization.

In 2018, Muratore failed to disclose to J.P. Morgan that he was named as a 50% beneficiary on a client’s new Transfer on Death account. J.P. Morgan does not allow representatives to be beneficiaries on any client accounts unless they are immediate family members.

Muratore was not related to the client, according to the FINRA report, and the client has since removed Muratore as a beneficiary and named a relative.

Then in early 2019, FINRA says, Muratore forged the signature and initials of another J.P. Morgan client on 18 documents, without the customer’s authorization or knowledge, to set up the surrender of three annuities and the purchase of a new annuity.

He also post-dated a form that he and the same client had signed to liquidate her holdings in an account to buy two mutual funds.

After the client complained, the annuity companies reversed their transactions and J.P. Morgan reversed the mutual fund transaction.

In July 2020, while representing LPL and Financial Resources Group, Muratore impersonated a client on three telephone calls with an insurance company.

He was trying to advance the process of surrendering the client’s annuity to fund the purchase of securities at LPL, the FINRA report states. Eventually, the client surrendered the annuity and deposited the funds with LPL.

Under FINRA rules, suspended advisers may not associate with any FINRA members in any capacity, effectively barring them from the industry.