According to FINRA, Altin Tirana was fined $5,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in all capacities for three months for falsifying the representative code for trades in his member firm's order entry system, causing the firm's trade confirmations to show an inaccurate representative code and as a result, causing the firm to maintain inaccurate books and records.

Tirana entered into an agreement through which he agreed to service certain customer accounts, including executing trades for those accounts, under a joint representative code that he shared with a retired representative. Although the firm's system correctly prepopulated the trades with the joint representative code, Tirana entered the transactions under his personal representative code through which he received a higher percentage of commissions than what he was entitled to receive pursuant to the agreement.

Tirana mistakenly believed the retired representative had agreed that he could change the representative code so that Tirana would receive higher percentages of commissions in order to increase compensation he paid to support staff servicing the customer accounts subject to the agreement. However, Tirana negligently failed to verify whether the representative had agreed that he could change the representative code in this manner. The firm paid restitution of approximately $24,000 to the retired representative, which is the approximate amount of additional commissions Tirana received as a result of changing the representative code on the trades.

The suspension was in effect from February 21, 2023, through May 20, 2023.

This case involves the improper alteration of representative codes to receive higher commissions. While Tirana claimed he mistakenly believed he had permission to change the codes, he failed to verify this belief before taking action. This negligence resulted in him receiving approximately $24,000 in commissions he was not entitled to receive.

Representative codes are important for accurate recordkeeping and for ensuring that commissions are properly allocated among brokers who service accounts. When brokers falsify representative codes, it not only harms other brokers who are entitled to commissions, but also creates inaccurate books and records that can undermine the firm's ability to properly supervise trading activity.