Former Westchester securities broker Roger Braxton II has been sanctioned for failure to cooperate with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in an investigation of false expense reports.
Braxton was barred from associating in any capacity with any firm regulated by FINRA, effectively banning him from the securities industry.
He had been registered as a representative of NYLife Distributors in White Plains, from 2015 to 2020.
Though NYLife fired him in 2020, FINRA, a private, self-regulatory organization that oversees the securities industry, retained jurisdiction over him for two years.
Hearing officer Michael J. Dixon ruled on April 14 that Braxton had violated a rule that authorizes FINRA to inspect records of anyone under its jurisdiction.
The rule, Dixon states in his decision, is at the heart of the self-regulatory system and, in the absence of subpoena power, provides the means of obtaining information for investigations.
FINRA was interested in Braxton because of a NYLife report that raised questions about the accuracy of his expense reports. Investigators were looking at potentially serious misconduct,” Dixon said, for “conversion of NYLIfe funds by submitting false expense reports.”
Last June, FINRA asked Braxton for records of Amazon purchases from late 2018 to early 2020 that he had submitted to NYLife for reimbursement.
He provided an Excel spreadsheet listing 59 purchases but did not provide any receipts, invoices or confirmations, according to Dixon.
FINRA asked three more times for the records but Braxton did not respond, according to the decision, and when formal charges were filed he did not answer the complaint, and when a hearing was held he did not appear.
Dixon issued a default decision, ruling that Braxton’s initial, limited response did not constitute substantial compliance with FINRA’s requests.
Before joining NYLife, Braxton had worked for Rockland County banks in Nanuet, West Haverstraw and Pomona, according to a FINRA BrokerCheck record.
After NYLife, according to a LinkedIn profile, he co-founded a brokerage firm that is not identified, worked for Facet Wealth and Salesforce and then joined Moody’s Analytics in Austin, Texas.
