Mike McCrory ,I-Bankers Securities, Shelley Gluck I wasn't paid for the work I did for I-Bankers Securities ,Mike Mccrory, New York New York

I find it interesting that a self-proclaimed "Wall Street" firm would try and disparage my work as a broker, especially considering that, upon hiring me, they would have known of my previous stints at other firms, all of which I left with a clean U-5. I guess their insights are from a 3rd party "Self-reporting" website.  Talk about due diligence.  I was hired to be a trader, not a producer, so I'm not sure what production would have anything to do with the functional role for which I was hired.  I did have contacts with strong ties to the Brazilian capital markets (not Middle East as reported), however management didn't think it was important to spend the money to meet with any of these connections in Miami or Brazil.  I also find it interesting that the Principals would name MD Masterson as the responsible party for my pay, considering the owers had to approve and sign my checks.  I wonder if MD Masterson would be available for support to their claims?  

I am also really confused as to why the Principals would think I was disgruntled as I realized I wasn't getting paid approximately two months into my time there and thus began looking for other opprtunities.  And that was 3 years ago.  The reason I brought light of these facts is because the same exact scenario occurred with another "former" I-Bankers employee.  Not sure what actions he has since taken.  To prove my point about their reluctance to sign contracts or pay their employees, I sent multiple emails to the I-Bankers' Principals to engage into a referral agreement for a specific % of gross fees.  Obviously, the agreement wasn't signed.  

As for being labeled as "washed out", I think being an owner of a 50+ employee company would make me feel 100% confident of my decision to leave I-Bankers.  All one has to do is look at the I-Bankers corporate site over time to see incredible amount of turnover (archive.org/web) of their Executive Team

Among the lessons I learned, other than the obvious ethical ones, are the incredibly explicit rules for a trading firm engaging in two-sided / Proprietary trades with and without a licensed Series 55 Trader on its trading desk.  I feel very fortunate to have learned this information during my successful completion of the Series 55 exam.

Wall St. is not an easy place and this employee never produced a dime of revenue- so it is no surprise that he did not last with our firm nor any other. He has been out of the business since his short tenure with us- 3 years ago. In fact, go to www.brokercheck.org and type in Michael D. Surin and you will see he lasted all of 2 months with Merril Lynch, 5 months with a firm named Kovack Securities and not much longer with us.

He was hired as an assistant to our FL office MD, Masterson, who paid him $1k per month plus comm on any sales he made or deals he brought in. The closest he ever came to either of those tasks was repeatedly speaking about some "connected source in the middle east", which, of course, never materialized. Masterson continually reported that Surin was ineffectual and produced no value. We do not now, nor did we ever, owe any money to him which was not paid in full.

The facts speak for themselves- in the time since this unproductive employee left our firm, he is washed out of the business while we have continued on and managed another 17 transactions. We are far from perfect but we have worked hard to remain an independent broker dealer with a clean reputation and a nearly 20 year history. It is sad and odd that 3 years on, an unhappy soul would post such a one sided attack on us. We wish him more success in his current endeavors than he realized in capital markets after failing with 3 different firms