Fined Manager Stepping Down

A Shearson Lehman Bros. branch manager who had been implicated in wrongdoing at his huge Manhattan brokerage office gave up his post Tuesday and will go back to being a broker, the firm said.

Robert L. Tarlowe, head of Shearson’s 55 Water St. office, was censured and fined $5,000 a year ago after settling New York Stock Exchange charges. The charges were part of a NYSE case that found widespread cheating of customers by brokers in the office.

Tarlowe and the 55 Water St. office figured prominently in a series of stories by The Times in July, which reported that major Wall Street firms knowingly kept brokers who had records of defrauding customers.

Tarlowe earlier had served as head of the entire Lehman retail division, a highly profitable arm of Shearson’s retail brokerage operations, which include the 55 Water St. office.

Shearson spokesman Steven H. Faigen said Tarlowe decided on his own to step down as branch manager. “We in no way requested that he do so,” Faigen said.

He also said Tarlowe’s decision had nothing to do with the NYSE case or The Times’ series. Tarlowe will be succeeded as branch manager by Dennis J. Mooradian, Shearson’s national sales director.

The 55 Water St. office, which earlier this year employed more than 100 brokers, was said to produce more than $100 million in commission revenue for the firm in good years. Brokers there relied almost exclusively on “cold calling”--unsolicited calls to prospects all over the country.

The NYSE found that the office in the 1980s charged customers excessive, hidden commissions on stocks, made trades customers hadn’t asked for, and moved stock between customers’ accounts without their knowledge.

Tarlowe didn’t respond to a telephone message seeking comment.