An advisor who was fired by Merrill Lynch early final yr over an incident wherein he was captured on video throwing a drink and swearing at smoothie store workers is now dealing with a disciplinary continuing over his structuring of money transactions over a number of years.
In a grievance filed Friday on the Monetary Trade Regulatory Authority Workplace of Listening to Officers, the FINRA Division of Enforcement alleged that, over the course of greater than six years, whereas related to FINRA member Merrill Lynch, James Iannazzo “repeatedly structured money deposits and withdrawals in three separate financial institution and brokerage accounts for the aim of inflicting the monetary establishments to fail to file a Forex Transaction Report.”
Merrill declined to remark Wednesday, whereas Iannazzo’s attorneys and spokesman didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Iannazzo has been registered with Aegis Capital since March 2022.
Particularly, the grievance alleged that, between December 2014 and March 2021, Iannazzo “divided money transactions over $10,000 into smaller deposits or withdrawals performed over a number of days on the identical financial institution, and sometimes performed the transactions at totally different branches of the identical financial institution.”
He additionally “ceaselessly withdrew greater than $10,000 in money on a single day by way of transactions performed at two totally different monetary establishments,” in keeping with the grievance.
In whole, he structured 71 money deposits and withdrawals totaling $568,440 in two private financial institution accounts and 297 ATM deposits and withdrawals totaling $277,450 in a Merrill account, in keeping with the grievance.
Iannazzo structured the money transactions to “keep away from conducting a single deposit or withdrawal over $10,000 at a monetary establishment, which might require the monetary establishment to file a CTR,” FINRA alleged.
