CONCORD — The New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation has settled a case against a New York-based broker who has been ordered to pay restitution to the estate of a Lebanon man.
Joseph Ambrosole, a state-licensed broker-dealer made stock trades that were unsuitable for the 80-year-old Lebanon resident he took on as a client in December 2017, the state said in a consent order issued Monday.
Joseph Stone Capital, a New Hampshire registered broker-dealer that Ambrosole worked for, failed to have “adequate written supervisory policies/procedures in effect to monitor Ambrosole’s trading activity,” the consent order says.
In a news release, the securities bureau said that Ambrosole’s trades “generated losses of at least $175,000 while Ambrosole made over $150,000 in commissions for himself and Joseph Stone Capital.”
The losses occurred from December 2017 to August 2020, “at a time where medical records suggest that the client began suffering from neurological, mental and cognitive issues,” the news release says. The investor’s daughter closed the account after reviewing the trading activity.
To settle the claims, Ambrosole and Joseph Stone Capital must pay restitution of $175,000 to the estate of the Lebanon man, whom the bureau did not name, and who has since died, as well as a $100,000 fine and $30,000 in the bureau’s costs.
The news release said Ambrosole has withdrawn his registration as a broker-dealer agent in New Hampshire and is no longer licensed in the state.