According to FINRA, Robert Earl Turner Jr. was barred from association with any FINRA member in all capacities for participating in private securities transactions without providing prior written notice to his member firm and for selling fraudulent investment products that caused customers to lose most or all of their investments.

Turner marketed, recommended, and sold what were purported to be fixed annuities offered by an entity formed by his college friend and business acquaintance to customers of Turner's firm, who collectively invested over $7.2 million in the entity. The entity's products were not, in fact, fixed annuities, but rather securities. The entity was not a licensed insurance company, nor was it licensed or authorized to sell fixed annuities at any time during the period when Turner sold the products.

Based on Turner's representations and quarterly annuity statements that the entity sent to Turner's customers, they believed they would be earning a fixed, guaranteed rate of return of between four percent and eight percent, compounded on a quarterly basis. Turner did not disclose his affiliation with his friend to any of his customers who invested in these products.

Turner actively concealed from the firm his involvement in selling these products, which he knew were not approved firm products, by directing his friend to send copies of the entity's quarterly annuity statements to his personal P.O. Box instead of his firm office. Turner falsely attested on several firm compliance certifications that he understood and agreed to comply with the firm's prohibition on selling away.

When one of Turner's former firm customers sought to withdraw her entire investment from the entity, which the most recent annuity statement had led her to believe was valued at over $450,000, Turner's friend died before the customer received any money from her investment. Following the friend's death, those of Turner's customers who invested in the entity lost most, if not the entirety, of their investments.

This case represents a particularly egregious example of selling away and fraud. Turner sold fraudulent investment products that were not legitimate annuities, concealed this activity from his firm, and caused customers to lose over $7 million. The bar sanction is appropriate given the severity of the misconduct and the substantial harm to investors.