Jeff Nimmow: FINRA Bars Ex-Forest Securities Broker

Former Hillside, Illinois broker Jeff Nimmow (CRD# 2693601) was recently the subject of a disciplinary action by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He was barred in connection to allegations he improperly engaged in the sale of promissory notes.

According to a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (No. 2018057522001) dated February 2020, Jeff Nimmow was associated with Forest Securities as an Investment Company/Variable Contracts Products Representative from August 2015 until March 2018, when the firm filed notice of its termination of his registration. In March 2015, the findings state, he inquired with a his member firm at the time whether it would allow him to sell First Position Commercial Mortgages offered by the Woodbridge Group of Companies, “a self-advertised real-estate investment fund” he had begun following in 2013, and which in 2015 he had received favorable recommendations about. His firm at the time “indicated that it was unlikely to approve any such request” to sell the fund’s FPCM Notes, promissory notes of about a yearlong duration with a “wholesale” interest rate of “typically 9%.”

After becoming associated with Forest Securities, the findings go on, he submitted a request to the firm in December 2015 to add the Woodbridge FPCMs to his outside business activities, but in his request “failed to provide reasonable notice… of his proposed activities, including disclosing certain facts to [the firm] which suggested that the FPCM Notes may be securities.” He later “engaged in private securities transactions” when he sold the notes to 18 investors, according to FINRA, and in each case did not provide the firm with notice of each proposed transaction. The findings state additionally that he “could not offer the FPCM Notes to his customers because he was not qualified and registered to sell promissory notes that were unregistered securities.” In total, FINRA states, he sold at least $3,365,000 in the notes to 18 investors between February 2016 and November 2017, receiving about $177,937 in commissions. On December 4, 2017, the Woodbridge Group of Companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A few weeks later the SEC filed a complaint alleging Woodbridge and its former owner “ran a Ponzi scheme,” and in December 2018 the company and its former owner were ordered to disgorge ill-gotten gains.

As a result of his foregoing alleged conduct, Jeff Nimmow was barred from associating with any FINRA member in any capacity.

Jeff Nimmow is currently not registered as a broker or investment adviser. His previous registrations include Forest Securities, Questar Capital Corporation, TradeRight Securities, USAllianz Securities, Signator Investors, and John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company. He has passed three securities industry qualifying examinations and his BrokerCheck report lists zero state securities licenses. (Information current as of May 27, 2020.)