Morgan Stanley Parts Ways with $5-Mln Broker in Miami

A top-billing Morgan Stanley Wealth Management broker in Miami who worked primarily with Latin American clients left the firm under pressure last week, according to two sources familiar with the departure.

Candido Viyella, who spent almost one-third of his 32-year career as a registered rep with Morgan Stanley, was terminated over concerns about outside investments, according to one of the sources. Viyella in the past 12 months had generated around $5 million in revenue from clients, the source said.

Viyella could not be reached for comment by telephone and did not return requests sent through social media. A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman declined to comment.

Termination of large producers such as Viyella reflects growing sensitivity by firms to potential enforcement issues from regulators.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has been cracking down on brokers who market off-platform investments without written permission from their employers. Firms also have become increasingly sensitive to regulatory scrutiny of procedures for monitoring advisors servicing offshore clients to ensure compliance with anti-money-laundering and other laws, though no such allegations appear on Viyella’s BrokerCheck history.

The only two disclosures in Viyella’s BrokerCheck history are pending customer disputes that involve complaints “inter alia” that he “solicited outside investment opportunity,” or “opportunities,” not authorized by Morgan Stanley. One was filed last month and involved a solicitation made seven years ago. The second was filled in October 2019 and involved recommendations made from 2015 through 2019.

The BrokerCheck database as of Wednesday morning did not indicate that Viyella had left Morgan Stanley.

The wirehouse in August terminated Iñigo Domenech, an 18-year industry veteran who worked in another Miami branch and had led a $20 million team of producers who joined Morgan Stanley in 2016 from Credit Suisse.

Domenech was “permitted to resign” following allegations that included fraud and misappropriation related to “investments away from the firm,” according to his BrokerCheck history. Morgan Stanley last year paid $15 million to settle a complaint from a Mexican customer over the investments, according to BrokerCheck and media reports.

Domenech, who three weeks ago joined Jefferies LLC in Miami, could not be reached for comment.

Last month, Morgan Stanley terminated V. Thane Stenner, a California-based broker in its Graystone “institutional consulting” arm, over claims that he failed to adhere to restrictions it had imposed on an outside business investment. Stenner is now registered with Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management in Vancouver, Canada.

Viyella’s 32-year career in the securities industry started at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and also included three years with Smith Barney, nine years at Prudential Securities and eight years with UBS/PaineWebber. He joined Morgan Stanley in May 2009, according to BrokerCheck.

The outside business activities he includes on his regulatory forms include a real estate investment business, an investment-related family partnership and board positions at Jackson Health and the U.S.-Mexico Chamber Bi-National board.

His departure from Morgan Stanley was previously reported by “Citywire.”