Securities Fraud Lawyer Blog
Thomas Laws of Silver City, New Mexico charged by the SEC and Barred by FINRA
Thomas Laws, a registered representative from Silver City, New Mexico, formerly with HD Vest Investment Services, was barred from FINRA membership as a result of an SEC investigation into alleged misconduct in his handling of investor funds. The Commission alleged that from 2016 through 2018, a business Laws controlled transferred over one million dollars of investors’ funds to purchase a silver mine, acquire mining claims, purchase mining equipment, and for other corporate related activity. The complaint alleges that instead of using the funds for corporate purposes, Laws misappropriated them and attempted to hide the theft by forging vendor invoices, bank records and signatures.
Laws then filed and certified periodic reports with the SEC, which the Commission alleges were materially false and misleading. As a result of this conduct Laws was arrested by the FBI at his office in New Mexico in August, 2019 and charged with three felonies related to the alleged theft.