A lawsuit was filed against First Jersey Securities.

A client of the Newark, N.J., brokerage firm has sued the firm and its founder, Robert Brennan, on charges that they violated federal securities laws and deliberately misled customers, according to court documents. The plaintiff, Jack Zakim of Mahwah, N.J., alleged that the company lied to customers by selling them certain stocks at prices above market value and persuading them to sell for below what they could get on the general market. The suit also charged that the firm directed some of its branches to urge customers to sell certain stocks while at the same time asking other branches to encourage customers to buy the stocks, resulting in a large number of transactions profitable to itself, the suit said.