FINRA sanctions Mount Vernon securities broker

A Mount Vernon securities broker was fined and suspended in January for misrepresenting trades in a way that allowed him to collect higher commissions.

Michael Peter Dmytryshyn accepted the findings of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a private self-regulatory organization that oversees securities firms and brokers, and consented to a $2,500 fine and 10-day suspension. FINRA published the sanctions in its March disciplinary action report.

Dmytryshyn has been registered with FINRA since 1992 and employed by Morgan Stanley in Manhattan and Purchase since 2009.

In 2017, he agreed to record transactions for certain accounts by using a code that he shared with a retired employee and to share commissions at fixed percentages.

From April 2017 to December 2020, he switched the joint code to his personal code on 138 trades. The retiree had agreed to let Dmytryshyn change the code, according to  FINRA, but in doing so he violated rules that require brokers and firms to maintain accurate records.

FINRA says Dmytryshyn received higher commissions than he was entitled to on the 138 trades. Last year Morgan Stanley reimbursed the retiree.

The FINRA report does not say how much extra money he made on commissions.

According to Dmytryshyn’s FINRA BrokerCheck record, his actions had no impact on clients.

In consenting to the sanctions, Dmytryshyn neither admitted nor denied the findings, on the one hand, but agreed not to make any public statement denying the findings, on the other hand.

Morgan Stanley discharged Dmytryshyn in February 2021.

He paid the $2,500 fine this past Feb. 14, according to the BrokerCheck report, and served his suspension as a securities representative from Feb. 22 to March 7. Now he is employed by Ameriprise Financial Services in Manhattan.