Finra Suspends Advisor for Impersonating Clients. His Lawyer Says There Was a Good Reason.

Regulators have suspended an Oklahoma financial advisor for impersonating clients in a series of phone calls with his former brokerage firm. His lawyer says he was trying to help the clients access their accounts, which likely explains the relatively brief suspension and low fine.

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Finra, the brokerage industry self-regulator, suspended Chad Rogers for 45 days and fined him $5,000 for allegedly violating Rule 2010, Finra’s catchall regulation requiring brokers to “observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.”

Finra alleges that between August 2022 and June 2023, while Rogers was working with IFP Securities, he impersonated 14 of his former clients in 22 phone calls with his previous brokerage firm. He settled the matter without admitting or denying misconduct.

Rogers’ lawyer, Jeanette Timmons with the firm Steptoe & Johnson, says that her client’s previous firm, Onesco, had changed the clients’ account numbers, “resulting in great frustration on the part of these customers to access their accounts and, in certain cases, make needed transfers to their external bank accounts.”

“Many of these same customers had also been notified by that broker-dealer firm that their accounts were being turned over to the Oklahoma Unclaimed Property Fund,” she says. “Because the customers felt they were not receiving the necessary support from the broker-dealer firm to resolve these issues, they turned to Mr. Rogers for help.”

A letter describing Rogers’ settlement with Finra says that he impersonated the clients to transfer their accounts from Onesco to IFP Securities, the brokerage firm where he was then working, or to their bank accounts.

“Although the customers consented to transferring their accounts or funds, none of the customers gave Rogers permission to impersonate them during these calls,” the settlement letter states.

IFP discharged Rogers in September 2023, citing his impersonation of clients. In a comment logged in his record in the online database BrokerCheck, Rogers acknowledged that he had violated Finra and state rules, but said he did so after receiving numerous appeals from clients to contact Onesco on their behalf and help them transfer their accounts.

“Accordingly, I contacted my previous firm by phone to assist such clients with securing the information necessary to facilitate the requested transactions,” he said. “In each instance, I assisted the requesting client pursuant to their specific request, and facilitated the requested transaction. However, by impersonating such clients, I violated IFP’s internal policies, as well as certain statutory rules and regulations of Finra and the Oklahoma Department of Securities that prohibit such conduct, no matter what the intent or the absence of any harm to the customer.”

The suspension, while now attached to Rogers’ regulatory record, might not derail his present work. He left IFP in 2023 and joined Merit Advisors, a registered investment advisory firm, the following year, where he remains registered. The Finra suspension only prohibits him from associating with a Finra-member firm, which Merit is not.

Rogers was previously the subject of minor disciplinary actions from the Oklahoma Department of Securities. One in 2017 involved his alleged failure to timely disclose five liens filed against him. The other came last year involving the same issue of impersonating clients that was the subject of the Finra action. Oklahoma suspended his registration with the state for nine months in that case.

Timmons, Rogers’ lawyer, notes that he has never had a customer complaint in a 23-year career, and there was “there was no finding that any customer was harmed by Mr. Rogers’ actions” in the Finra settlement.

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