Anthony Diaz

Anthony Diaz (CRD# 4131948) of Scotrun, Pennsylvania, who does business as Financial Planners Group of America, Wealth Management Group of America, and Anthony Diaz, Inc., has been charged with multiple violations of securities industry rules.

FINRA, in Complaint No. 2011030254902, alleged that Diaz’s actions in the mishandling of many client accounts have caused significant damages to many investors. Included in the lengthy Complaint by FINRA are allegations that Diaz made unsuitable variable annuity exchanges, deceptive use of falsified financial information and dates, fraud in connection with the sale of alternative investments, falsification of books and records, unauthorized trading, and made false statements to customers regarding his firings from firms.

Some of the specific allegations against Anthony Diaz include claims by FINRA that Diaz “flipped” annuities. According to FINRA, during an approximately one-year period of time from March 2010 through April 2011, Diaz recommended that his customers surrender their variable annuities and replace them with another variable annuity. FINRA alleged that Diaz generated 116 exchange transactions during that period of time, 89 of which were exchanges into the same product, the Allianz Vision Variable Annuity. It was further alleged that even though the 89 customers who received the same annuity had divergent ages, financial situations, needs, objectives, and risk tolerances, 78 of those customers who purchased the Allianz Vision annuity were placed in the exact same subaccount allocations and sold the same income protection rider.

Further allegations were made against Diaz surrounding a host of alleged improprieties involving the sale of various “Alternative Investments” including ICON Leasing Fund Eleven, LLC, ICON Leasing Fund Twelve, LLC, ICON Equipment and Corporate Infrastructure Fund Fourteen, LLC, the Grubb & Ellis Apartment REIT (n/k/a Landmark Apartment Trust of America), and Inland American Real Estate Trust, Inc.

According to regulatory records, Anthony Diaz has worked for 11 brokerage firms since entering the securities industry in 2000. According to FINRA, Diaz has been terminated from 5 of the 11 broker-dealers for whom he worked. Since 2009, Diaz has worked for First Allied Securities, Inc., SII Investments, Inc., Matrix Capital Group, Inc., Kovack Securities Inc., International Financial Solutions, Inc., Sandlapper Securities, LLC, and his current firm, IBN Financial Services.