FINRA Fines and Suspends Former Adviser over GPB Sales

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined and suspended former Aegis Capital Corp. registered representative Salvatore Gambino after he “made unsuitable recommendations in speculative alternative investments to three Aegis customers that were inconsistent with the customers’ investment profiles.”

FINRA says that from October 2015 to April 2018, Gambino recommended and sold GPB Automotive Portfolio LP interests to three Aegis customers that were “unsuitable” in light of the customers’ investment profiles. None of the three customers had an annual income and net worth that would qualify them as an accredited investor.

The customers’ investments totaled $250,000 in GPB Capital private placement offerings, which require that only accredited investors participate.

GPB Capital is a New York-based alternative asset management firm founded in 2013 that sponsored a number of Regulation D private placement investment funds. In 2021, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm and its executives with running a fraudulent “Ponzi-like scheme” that raised approximately $1.8 billion from investors.

Gambino consented to a four-month suspension, a $5,000 fine and partial restitution of $3,500 plus interest.

Gambino first registered with FINRA as a general securities representative through an association with Lew Lieberbaum & Co. Inc. in February 1997. From February 2010 to November 2020, Gambino was registered with Aegis Capital Corp. On December 6, 2021, Aegis filed an amended uniform termination notice for securities industry registration for Gambino disclosing a new customer arbitration that was filed against Aegis.

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