FINRA bars Matthew Thomas Cochran (CRD #5853600, Charlotte, North Carolina)

March 20, 2018 – A Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) was issued in which Cochran was barred from association with any FINRA member in all capacities. Without admitting or denying the findings, Cochran consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he and a third party, a nonregistered person, exercised discretionary authority to execute securities transactions in accounts held away from Cochran’s member firm. The findings stated that Cochran did not disclose his discretionary power over the outside accounts to the firm or notify the executing broker-dealer of his association with his firm. Cochran recommended that firm customers and other individuals, who were not family members, open accounts at the other broker-dealer. However, at Cochran’s recommendation, the investors verbally gave him and/or the non-registered person discretionary authority over the outside accounts. Neither Cochran nor the non-registered person obtained written discretionary authority. Cochran knew that the non-registered person had never held any securities licenses. In addition, on a questionnaire that Cochran submitted to the firm, he falsely answered a question asking whether or not he held trading authority for any account held at the firm or elsewhere. Cochran and the non-registered person executed transactions with an aggregate trade value (buy and sell) of more than $9.6 million for the investors in the outside accounts. Cochran received $34,000 in funds from the investors related to this activity. The findings also stated that during telephone calls for investors who verbally authorized him to make the calls, Cochran misrepresented to the executing broker-dealer that he was one of the investors. During two of these telephone calls, Cochran instructed the executing broker-dealer to liquidate investors’ securities positions. (FINRA Case #2017054247001).  If you or someone you know has lost money investing with Matthew Cochran, call the experienced attorneys at Epperson & Greenidge at 877-445-9261 for a free consultation. You may be eligible to recoup your losses. Epperson & Greenidge accepts all cases on a contingency basis: we only get paid if and when you collect money. Time to file your claim may be limited, so we encourage you to avoid delay. Call 877-445-9261 now to speak to an attorney for free.