FINRA suspends New Rochelle financial adviser for dodging testimony

A regulatory agency has suspended a financial adviser with several customer complaints on his record for refusing to testify about why he was fired from an Elmsford firm.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is asking an arbitration panel to impose monetary sanctions on Adam G. Belardino of New Rochelle for not cooperating with an investigation of his conduct as a securities representative for MML Investors Services.

FINRA is a private, self-regulatory organization that oversees brokerage firms and their employees. It began investigating Belardino in 2019 after MML fired him.

Belardino was employed at Barnum Financial Group in Elmsford from 2007 to March 2019  where he was a registered representative for MML, an affiliate of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

He was fired, according to FINRA, because a customer complained that he had engaged in excessive trading, misrepresented the values of the customer’s accounts and failed to comply with requests to liquidate the accounts and distribute the proceeds. The dispute was settled for $1.5 million.

FINRA BrokerCheck lists several other complaints against Belardino:

• In 2019, he allegedly made unauthorized transactions and solicited new accounts under false pretenses “using forged signatures.” The dispute was settled for $69,408.
• In 2017, a customer claims, he misrepresented a variable life insurance policy. The case was settled for $51,133.
• In 2018, he allegedly made mutual fund trades in a joint brokerage account without the customers’ consent and with signatures that “were not valid.” The dispute was settled for $6,783.
• In 2019, a customer accused him of misrepresenting a variable annuity. The complaint was denied.
• This year, a customer accused him of selling real estate investment trusts that were unsuitable for the customer’s portfolio. The case is pending.

FINRA said an attorney notified the agency in 2019 that Belardino was unable to respond to three customer complaints because he did not have access to the documents.

FINRA scheduled a Zoom videoconference for Oct. 14, 2020, for Belardino to provide on-the-record testimony. Two days before the meeting Belardino’s attorney notified the agency that his client was unable to proceed due to medical reasons.

Then testimony was scheduled in November and December, but Belardino failed to appear both times, according to Finra.

The agency says it notified Belardino that he would be suspended from associating with FINRA members for failing to testify. Belardino’s attorney asked for a hearing but then withdrew the request.

The agency temporarily suspended Belardino in February, filed the formal disciplinary proceeding in May and publicly posted the proceeding in its July monthly disciplinary report.

Belardino did not immediately respond to a request for his side of the story.

He describes himself as a “seasoned entrepreneur … backed by years of experience in funding and backing startups,” according to a profile on the website of The Maddox Group, a marketing and consulting firm that lists him as co-founder and CEO.

“The cornerstone of my practice is giving people the knowledge they need,” he states on his LinkedIn profile, “to make informed financial choices with confidence.”