Brett Levinson: Stifel Nicolaus Broker Sanctioned, Suspended

San Diego-based broker Brett Levinson (CRD# 2644880) has been sanctioned by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in connection to allegations involving the misuse of customer information. A representative at the firm’s branch office in San Diego, California, Levinson was issued a 30-day suspension and a fine of $5,000.

According to a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (No. 2015047496101) dated December 2019, Brett Levinson was associated with Hilltop Securities as a General Securities Representative from December 2008 until his resignation in September 2015, after which the firm filed a notice disclosing that it was performing an internal probe to determine whether he had violated “investment-related statutes, regulations, rules or industry standards of conduct.” FINRA’s findings state that in August 2015, when he was negotiating his transition to a new firm, but while he was still employed at Hilltop Securities, he gave an individual at another FINRA member firm excerpts of two daily trade blotters, “one of which included the name of a Hilltop customer, as well as her account number, and trade information.” FINRA states that after he left Hilltop Securities, he kept “several binders of his customers’ account statements, including customers’ account numbers, for several days,” even though he was not at the time “entitled” to do so. FINRA states that these activities caused Hilltop to violate Regulation S-P, which generally prohibits financial institutions from the improper release of nonpublic customer information, as well as FINRA Rule 2010. As a result of the foregoing alleged conduct, he was issued a 30-day suspension and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000.

Brett Levinson has been associated with Stifel Nicolaus & Company in San Diego, California since 2015. His previous registrations include Hilltop Securities and ML Stern & Company. He has passed three securities industry qualifying examinations and his BrokerCheck report lists 16 state securities licenses. (Information current as of May 13, 2020.)