Frank Birgfeld is the Vice President and District Director of District No. 3. Frank was thesenior manager of a 40 person staff in Denver and a 28 person staff in Seattle. Such staff included attorneys, CPA’s and other financial principals. District No. 3 covers ten states, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Responsibilities included oversight of over 300 brokerage firms, 9000 branch offices and 17,000 registered persons. Basically, our work involved examinations and investigations to determine compliance, or the lack thereof, of the federal securities rules and regulations and those of the NASD. In over 32 years with the NASD, Frank has been involved in hundreds of disciplinary cases annually with occasional cooperation with authorities for criminal prosecution. All involved matters of ethical practice with some involving serious conduct including theft, stock manipulation, fraudulent bookkeeping, various dishonest acts with customers, supervision and derivative products. Frank was frequently involved with failing broker-dealers which required us to employ strategies to return customers’ funds and securities as well as to find ways to continue the business. When unsuccessful, we had in-depth involvement with the Securities Investors Protection Corporation. Frank has testified in a number of significant federal and state criminal and civil cases. He is also a frequent speaker at meetings of NASD member firms, securities regulators, bar associations, and public investor forums.

 

(04/12)