October 1, 2014-The Woodlands, Texas
Christopher L. Miller entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to resolve allegations that he posted messages on an internet message board concerning three publicly-traded securities that were unbalanced, promissory, misleading and/or lacked reasonable basis. Case # 2012035338601.
According to the AWC from June 2011 to November 2012, Miller posted about 120 messages on Yahoo Finance message boards containing opinions about various stocks as well as banter with other message board members. Miller purported to promote three stocks:
- Prospect Global Resources (PGRX)
- Vale SA (VALE)
- GMX Rexsources (GMXR)
Miller owned varying positions of each stock and at times misstated the extent of his holdings in his posts. Miller used two different aliases in his posts and sometimes the two aliases expressed agreement with each other. None of the posts were approved by his member firm UBS Financial Services.
Per the AWC the posts were misleading , unbalanced and promissory. Examples of the posts (See AWC for others):
PGRX
- “Fertilizer, and in particular, POTASH, will become the ‘gold’ of 2013”
- “PGRX is a great story. I do believe this is a buyout candidate at 4x and at worst, a double from here in short order”
GMXR
- “I’m back in guys, after selling BEFORE the big drop off. I now have initiated positions OVERNIGHT in Jan March and June 13 CALLS, and have purchased 200,000 shares. See you all in the mid $1.30 range in short order, perhaps by Wednesday”
Miller was fined $15,000, suspended from the securities industry for 11 months and is required to prequalify as a General Securities Representative by passing the Series 7 exam following his suspension.
According to FINRA records, Miller was registered with UBS Financial Services from 9/2009-12/2012 in Sugar Land Texas. Prior to that he was registered with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Houston, TX.
If you suffered damages in an account handled by Miller, contact us to discuss your legal options.
Rex Securities Law , with offices in Boca Raton, FL, and Austin, TX, provides representation to investors nationwide who are seeking recovery of investment losses due to the negligence or fraud of stockbrokers and broker dealers. If you have questions about how your account has been handled, call to speak with an experienced securities attorney.
Most cases handled on a contingent fee basis meaning that you do not pay legal fees unless we are successful.
Nationwide Representation
TollFree: 877-224-3199
Florida-561 391 1900
Texas-512-329-2870