• January 25, 2021
• Western International Securities

Peter Steege (CRD # 1060713) is a Financial Advisor at Western International Securities in Denver, Colorado. Peter Steege has been in the securities industry since 1982 and previously worked at Sands Brothers and Global Capital Securities.

“The Wolper Law Firm, P.A. recently filed an arbitration claim against Western International Securities based upon alleged sales practice misconduct by Peter Steege. According to the FINRA Complaint: This case is about Western Financial Advisor Peter Steege (“FA Steege”) using his discretionary trading authority to select concentrated positions in speculative individual stocks on behalf of an unsophisticated investor. Two of these stocks—Parsley Energy, Inc. and McDermott International, Inc.—resulted in large losses within a relatively short period of time and almost completely wiped-out the value of Claimant’s account. FA Steege also facilitated an options overlay strategy with which Claimant had no prior experience. The complexities and attendant risks of this concentrated strategy were never explained to Claimant, who is now faced with significant losses of more than half of her account’s value, which represented a substantial portion of her net worth.”

Although Peter Steege denies these allegations, the level of concentration in the accounts is evident from the face of the account statements. Th arbitration remains pending.

In addition, according to publicly available records released by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Peter Steege has had ten customer complaints during his career, two employment disclosures and four regulatory disclosures. Among the disclosures include the following:
• September 2020—”Incorrect Pricing Activity in 2020 2018-2020.” The complaint was denied.
• January 2017—”Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Breach of Contract, Misrepresentation.” The case settled for $125,000.
• August 2001—”UNSUITABLE INVESTMENT MADE 2 YEARS PRIOR. ALLEGED PURCHASE OF SECURITIES WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION 2 YEARS PRIOR.” Case settled for $50,000.
• June 2001—”ALLEGED UNSUITABLE INVESTMENT & ORDER EXECUTIVE WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION (JAN 01-MAY 01-EST).” Case settled for $218,000.
• April 2001—”CLIENTS ALLEGE THAT INVESTMENTS RECOMMENDED DID NOT MATCH THEIR INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES.” Case settled for $500,000.
• June 1990—”A.G. EDWARDS & SONS PERMITTED MY RESIGNATION FOR ALLEGED FAILURE TO REPRESENT THE BEST INTEREST OF A.G. EDWARDS & SONS AND ITS CLIENTS. CLIENT, CRAIG BENNEY, CONTACTED EDWARDS TO CORRECT BOTH THE BUY AND SELL OF 1,000 SHARES OF NEWBRIDGE NETWORK, INC. THREE MONTHS PRIOR WITH TOTAL CLAIM OF $1,713.”
• July 1989—”SMITH BARNEY ALLEGES THAT I ADMITTED TO THE SMITH BARNEY BRANCH MANAGER THAT I HAD REIMBURSED A CLIENT, JEROME SHULKIN, APPROXIMATELY $1,000 FOR TRADING LOSSES WHILE AT DREXEL BURNHAM.”

In addition, the State of Georgia and Illinois took regulatory action against Peter Steege’s license in the 1990s for engaging in unauthorized trading in customer accounts.

For a copy of Peter Steege’s BrokerCheck, click here.

Financial advisors have a legal and regulatory obligation to recommend only suitable investments that are appropriate for their clients’ needs and objectives. Their employing brokerage firm has a legal and regulatory obligation to supervise the Financial Advisors’ sales practices and dealings with clients. To the extent any of these duties are breached, the customer may be entitled to a recovery of his or her investment losses.

The Wolper Law Firm, P.A. represents investors nationwide in securities litigation and arbitration on a contingency fee basis. Matt Wolper, the Managing Principal of the Wolper Law Firm, P.A., is a trial lawyer who has handled hundreds of securities cases during his career involving a wide range of products, strategies and securities. Prior to representing investors, he was a partner with a national law firm, where he represented some of the largest banks and brokerage firms in the world in securities matters. We can be reached at 800.931.8452 or by email at mwolper@wolperlawfirm.com.