Carlton Companies, Inc. (fka CTNO)

[fredman]

New Rochelle man banned from securities industry
BY JERRY GLEESON
THE JOURNAL NEWS • NOVEMBER 27, 2008

A New Rochelle man, in charge of ensuring that the brokerage where he worked was obeying securities rules, instead helped employees evade a telephone taping system at the office and later lied to investigators about it, regulators say.

Ara Proudian has been banned for life from working with financial companies under a settlement of the charges, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said.

In agreeing to the settlement with FINRA, Proudian neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. A woman who answered the telephone at his home yesterday said there was a death in the family, and Proudian would have no comment.

He had been president and chief compliance officer at Carlton Capital Inc. in Manhattan from October of 2005 until he left in July of 2006, FINRA said. He was in charge of complying with regulations that required the installation and monitoring of a telephone taping system at the company.

FINRA said Proudian routinely allowed Carlton representatives to talk with customers on cell phones outside the office and to call in trades. Proudian also had two telephone systems at the office, one that employees knew was equipped to monitor calls, and a second that they knew was not. The second system was used to talk with customers, FINRA said.

In sworn testimony to FINRA investigators in May of 2006, Proudian said all Carlton telephone calls were recorded, including calls between him and the owner of the company. Yet Proudian routinely used unrecorded lines for those conversations as well, FINRA said.

Proudian lied again in sworn testimony in January of 2007, when he was questioned about the second telephone system, the agency said. Proudian said the second system was used only for fax transmissions.

Proudian has been in trouble with FINRA before. In August, a review panel upheld a hearing board finding that Proudian helped another company he worked for, Park Capital Securities LLC, manipulate stock prices.

Source:
http://www.lohud.com/article/20081127/BUSINESS01/811270398

This is actually good news IMO. Reason being: The taping violation on the FINRA site is dated November 2008. Whereas the actual incident occurred way back from October of 2005 until Proudian left Carlton Capital in July of 2006.