Morgan Stanley Ordered To Pay $2.4M

A Finra arbitration panel ordered Morgan Stanley to pay at least $2.4 million in the latest round of claims by clients of a former Mississippi broker who has repeatedly been accused of mishandling investments.

A group of physicians and their family members were the latest clients to be awarded a monetary judgment after accusing former Morgan Stanley broker Steven Mark Wyatt of unauthorized and excessive stock-market trading they say cost them money during and after the 2008 financial crisis.

The six investors had accused the firm and the branch manager, Fred Brister, of failing to supervise brokers Steven Wyatt and Hilary Joseph Zimmerman, who the investors alleged had mismanaged customer accounts and engaged in suspect trading, according to their arbitration claim with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The alleged misconduct occurred over a period of roughly four years starting in 2008, said Joseph Peiffer, a New Orleans-based lawyer representing the