December 30 , 2015-Dallas, Texas
Jose A. Zapata entered into a Letter of Acceptance Waiver and Consent (AWC) with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to resolve allegations that while associated with Argentus Securities as a registered representative, he made misrepresentations to one of his customers by overstating the value of the account in order to conceal investment losses that had been sustained in the account to induce the customer not to complain about the losses. This conduct violated FINRA Rule 2010.
According to FINRA, the client, who resides in Mexico, had been Zapata’s customer since 2007. Because the client had declined to have her account statements mailed to her home address due to security concerns, she would frequently call Zapata and ask him to provide her with her account balance. By September 2012, the client had begun verbally expressing concerns to Zapata about the performance of her account, which had sustained investment losses.
During one ofthese conversations, in order to prevent the client from filing a complaint, Zapata intentionally lied , telling the client that her account was worth approximately $170,000, when in fact it was actually worth only $108,225. Over the ensuing months, Zapata continued to falsely overstate the value of the account by amounts ranging from $15,000 to $60,000 during telephone conversations with the client.
During this time period, Zapata was also aware that the client, relying on the artificially inflated account values, made at least two purchase decisions, including the purchase of a car and a condominium.
AWC No. 2014039998801
Zapata was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.
Argentus Securities, formerly headquartered in Dallas, TX, is no longer registered with FINRA of a national securities exchange.
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