Brokers in Exam Scam Barred from Industry

Thirty of 53 brokers charged in New York in the biggest case ever of brokerage-licensing test fraud were fined as much as $20,000 apiece after pleading guilty to felony charges of attempted forgery. The 30 brokers, who were accused of paying two impostors to take the six-hour licensing exam for them, were also barred for life from the securities industry. The would-be brokers paid between $2,000 and $5,000 apiece, or a cut of their future business and commissions, to the test takers and middlemen between 1993 and early 1996. The remaining 23 accused brokers have pleaded not guilty, and their cases are scheduled to be heard in March before the New York State Supreme Court.