Alex Barron: FINRA Suspends Former IRC Securities Advisor

Former New York City-based financial advisor Alex Barron (CRD# 4394048) was recently sanctioned, suspended, and fined in connection with alleged rule violations. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records show that he was previously registered as a broker with IRC Securities, and he is not currently registered as a broker.

A Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (No. 2022075399002) describes FINRA’s disciplinary action against Mr. Barron. Filed in January 2025, it alleges that while he was a representative of IRC Securities, he solicited 14 firm investors to participate in a total of 30 promissory note transactions with a limited liability company that he owned and controlled. These transactions, totaling $979,500, constituted private securities transactions for which he did not provide his member firm with prior written notice, FINRA found.

As the AWC Letter explains, Mr. Barron allegedly participated in the transactions between October 2019 and April 2023. The investors he solicited were not customers of his member firm, FINRA notes. Between 2019 and January 2021, he did not provide the firm with notice of the transactions; in 2021, he partially disclosed it when he provided a copy of the note and stated that the funds from it were invested in a fund managed by his LLC. “That disclosure was incomplete and inaccurate,” FINRA alleged, because Mr. Barron “also used the money for purposes other than investing in that fund, including non-income generating purposes.” He allegedly did not provide the firm with any “further notice or disclosure of his promissory note activities.”

FINRA alleges further that when Mr. Barron solicited people to invest in the promissory notes, he did so through communications that were noncompliant with FINRA’s content standards for communications with members of the public. For instance, the communications allegedly “did not provide a fair and balanced treatment” of the notes’ risks and benefits, and they allegedly “failed to provide a sound basis for evaluating the facts concerning the notes.” The communications in question included a live-streamed PowerPoint presentation, emails to a listserv, and a brochure. These communications allegedly omitted risks regarding the notes, including the risk that his LLC might fall into insolvency or that the notes’ “issuing company may not be able to make principal and interest payments.”

FINRA concluded that Mr. Barron’s conduct violated various FINRA Rules, including Rules 2010, 2210, and 3280. The regulator suspended him from associating with any member firm in any capacity for 24 months, and issued him a fine of $50,000.

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Alex Barron holds 16 years of securities industry experience. Most recently based in New York City, he was registered as a broker with IRC Securities from 2011 until 2023. He was previously registered with Agency Trading Group (El Paso, Texas; 2007-2010) and JMP Securities (San Francisco, California; 2004-2007). He is not currently registered as a broker. (Information current as of January 6, 2024.)

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