A licensed insurance agent from Elizabethtown, Pa., was barred from associating with any FINRA members after he was found to have sold $180,000 in fake investments and misappropriated $49,000 in insurance proceeds, records show.

The FINRA action against Steve A. Brubaker follows action earlier this year by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department leading him to surrender his producer’s licenses in the state.

FINRA sanctioned Brubaker after he was found to have recommended that his customers invest in bearer bonds, falsely representing that the bond issuer was a nonprofit entity that helped needy people and had been in existence for 15 years. FINRA officials said no such security investments existed.

Brubaker was found to have provided his customers with fake certificates for the bonds and used the $180,000 he obtained from customers for his personal benefit.

He also misappropriated $49,000 in insurance proceeds that customers provided him, after misrepresenting to customers that they were invested in the bonds, according to FINRA.

Brubaker neither admitted nor denied the FINRA allegations.

In May, Brubaker surrendered his insurance license after PID investigators found evidence that he failed to report to the insurance department charges stemming from his selling of unregistered securities to nine of his existing elderly clients from March 2007 to February 2008, according to a consent order signed by Brubaker May 28. Agents must report actions against them in any jurisdiction within 30 days.

The order states that Brubaker charged each client $30,000 and kept the money instead of investing it.

Pennsylvania records show Brubaker failed to notify authorities of 18 felony charges filed against him, including six counts of theft by deception, six counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, five counts of sales and purchases under the Securities Act and one count of insurance fraud, records show.