B. Riley Securities: ownership, leadership and regulatory record

analysisB. Riley Securities, Inc. was formed in Delaware on June 16, 1989, according to FINRA's BrokerCheck report, which gives its main office as 1655 Fort Myer Drive, Suite 1200, Arlington, Virginia. It is registered with the SEC, two self-regulatory organizations and 53 U.S. states and territories, and is not suspended by any regulator. ¹

analysisBRC's 2025 annual report names B. Riley Securities and B. Riley Wealth Management as its broker-dealer subsidiaries, both registered with the SEC, members of FINRA and subject to the SEC's net capital rule (Rule 15c3-1). At December 31, 2025 B. Riley Securities reported net capital of $79,560 thousand against a requirement of $5,167 thousand; B. Riley Wealth Management reported net capital of $7,521 thousand, down from $16,384 thousand a year earlier, against a requirement of $1,335 thousand. ²

analysisBrokerCheck shows a three-step ownership chain, each step at 75% or more: B. Riley Securities Holdings, Inc. has been the direct parent of B. Riley Securities since March 2025; BR Financial Holdings, LLC has been the parent of B. Riley Securities Holdings since April 2021; and BRC Group Holdings, Inc., a public reporting company, has been the parent of BR Financial Holdings since April 2021. ¹

analysisIn an announcement of April 20, 2026 BRC said it would pursue a repurchase of the approximately 8% of B. Riley Securities' shares that it did not already own, and that it intended to merge B. Riley Securities with B. Riley Wealth by the end of the year, subject to regulatory approval including FINRA approval under Rule 1017. ²

analysisBrokerCheck places the firm under common control of BRC Group Holdings with B. Riley Venture Capital, LLC (from December 12, 2024), B. Riley Wealth Private Shares (from September 2, 2021), B. Riley Wealth Advisors, Inc. (from February 25, 2021) and B. Riley Wealth Management (from July 3, 2017). B. Riley Securities clears trades on a fully disclosed basis through National Financial Services LLC, an arrangement effective November 1, 2017. ¹

analysisIn April 2026 B. Riley Securities announced that Bryant Riley had been appointed Executive Chairman, that Andy Moore was returning as Chief Executive Officer and that Joseph Nardini, its Head of Investment Banking, had been promoted to President. BrokerCheck's list of executive officers reflects the change: Andrew Thomas Moore as Chief Executive Officer and Bryant Richard Riley as Executive Chairman from April 2026, Patrice McNicoll and Joseph Robert Nardini as Co-Presidents from May and April 2026, Frank Pigott as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer from March 2026, Mary Ann Nell Swain as Chief Financial Officer from May 2026 and Janelle Regina Schutt as Controller since October 2008, each owning less than 5%. ^{1 2}

analysisFINRA's BrokerCheck report for B. Riley Securities, Inc. (firm record 25027) discloses 12 regulatory events, one civil event and one arbitration, all shown as final, with none pending or on appeal. Most date from the years when the firm operated as Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc. The most recent began on September 18, 2024, when the Options Clearing Corporation brought case 2024-07, alleging that the firm violated a protective measure imposed under OCC Rule 307 and failed to provide more frequent financial reporting on time; on September 24, 2024 the firm consented, without admitting or denying the allegations, to a final decision imposing a $20,000 sanction. ¹

analysisBefore that, the firm settled two matters in 2011 and 2007. In an Acceptance, Waiver and Consent resolved on April 5, 2011 (FINRA case 2010021642901) the firm was censured and fined $10,000, without admitting or denying the findings, for failing to report 26 transactions in TRACE-eligible securities within 15 minutes of execution and related reporting and recordkeeping failures. In one resolved on December 18, 2007 (case 2006006756301) it was censured, fined $50,000 and required to revise its written supervisory procedures, again without admitting or denying the findings, which were that the trade volume it advertised in private reporting services for one month substantially exceeded its executed volume and that it did not supervise that advertised volume. ¹

analysisThe two largest sanctions concern PIPE private placements. On December 20, 2006 the SEC filed settled charges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil Action No. 06-CV-02160) against the predecessor broker-dealer Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc. (FBR) over the CompuDyne Corporation offering, alleging failures in its procedures for handling material nonpublic information, trading while aware of such information and unregistered sales. Without admitting or denying the allegations FBR consented to a permanent injunction and to disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties totalling $3,755,839, and on January 12, 2007 to an SEC order censuring it and requiring undertakings. In an NASD Acceptance, Waiver and Consent of the same December 20, 2006 (case 20050002450-04, concerning a private placement) FBR was censured and ordered to pay monetary sanctions of $5,047,546, consenting without admitting or denying the findings; the allegations stated that it failed to enforce its information-barrier procedures in connection with a PIPE private placement and traded in a proprietary market-making account before the public announcement while aware of material nonpublic information. ^{1 2}

analysisTwo earlier matters concerned research. In an NASD Acceptance, Waiver and Consent of October 17, 2006 the firm was censured and fined $15,000, without admitting or denying the findings, for failing to enforce its written supervisory procedures over securities transactions by its research analysts and other associated persons. A settled SEC proceeding was resolved on August 25, 2004. BrokerCheck dates its start to July 1, 2003, while the conduct alleged falls in the period from July 1999 through November 2003: the SEC alleged that on one occasion in that period FBR had received a payment in connection with research coverage of an issuer without disclosing it in research reports, in violation of Section 17(b) of the Securities Act. The firm was censured, ordered to cease and desist and paid a $125,000 penalty on August 31, 2004; in its own statement it says it consented to the order without admitting or denying the matters set forth in it, other than those relating to the Commission's jurisdiction. ¹

analysisThe remaining regulatory events, all before 2006, carried fines of $15,000 or less. NASD censured Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc. and fined it $7,500 on July 19, 2005 (case CLG050108) for failing to classify an order as a covered order and publishing incorrect order-execution information under SEC Rule 11Ac1-5(b), without admitting or denying the allegations; fined the firm, then FBRC, $5,000 on January 15, 2004 (CMS040006) for incorrectly reporting 16 transactions to ACT and sending six inaccurate or incomplete reports to OATS, paid on February 12, 2004; censured it on December 30, 1999 (CMS990165) for recordkeeping, best-execution and trade-reporting violations, with a $15,000 fine and $4,625 plus interest in customer restitution, without admission or denial; and censured and fined it $7,500 in a matter initiated on May 1, 1998 and resolved on June 8, 1998 (CMS980047) for order-memorandum deficiencies and for failing to establish and enforce written supervisory procedures on trade reporting, best execution, order handling and recordkeeping, the fine paid on June 9, 1998. The earliest event is an Acceptance, Waiver and Consent filed on March 18, 1991 alleging violations of Article III, Section 1 of NASD rules and Rule 15c2-11, accepted by NASD committees in May and July 1991 with a $500 fine. ¹

analysisThe firm's single disclosed arbitration, NASD case 00-03979, was filed on September 28, 2000 with claims of breach of contract, failure to supervise, negligence and failure to execute. The claimants sought $7,113,046. BrokerCheck records the disposition on December 17, 2004 as an award of $367,169.60 against a party it does not name in the summary. ¹

analysisBrokerCheck keeps a separate record for B. Riley & Co., LLC, a former broker-dealer of the group, which it describes as a limited liability company formed in Delaware on April 30, 2007, whose broker-dealer registration ran from January 3, 1997 to March 4, 2019. It ceased business on December 31, 2018 and reported owing no money or securities to customers or other brokerage firms. BrokerCheck lists B. Riley Financial, Inc. as its owner from November 2016, Thomas John Kelleher and Bryant Richard Riley as co-CEOs from August 2017 and Alan Neil Forman as General Counsel from June 2015, and shows it under common control of B. Riley Financial with Wunderlich Securities, Inc. (from July 3, 2017), MLV & Co. LLC and FBR Capital Markets & Co. (both from June 1, 2017) and B. Riley Capital Management, LLC. ¹

analysisFINRA's BrokerCheck report for B. Riley & Co. shows six final regulatory events, none pending or on appeal. The largest is an NASD Acceptance, Waiver and Consent of August 1, 2007 (case 2005003303401) under which the firm was censured and fined a total of $265,000. ¹