Letter to President and CEO of NPR

John Lansing
President and CEO
National Public Radio
1111 North Capitol Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002

Dear Mr. Lansing,

Raymond James is a major sponsor of National Public Radio.

One sponsorship promotion on NPR, Raymond James says: “Since our beginning, our business has been people and their financial well-being.”

Raymond James’ business has also been about regularly settling charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and other regulators alleging that Raymond James violated the law.

In 2019, Raymond James paid $15 million to settle SEC charges alleging that it improperly charged advisory fees on inactive retail client accounts and charged excess commissions for brokerage customer investments in certain unit investment trusts (UITs).

Also last year, Raymond James paid $6.8 million to settle SEC charges that it advised clients to purchase or hold mutual fund share classes that charged 12b-1 fees when lower-cost share classes of those same funds were available to those clients. Raymond James brokers received 12b-1 fees that they would not have collected had those clients invested in the available lower-cost share classes, the SEC alleged.

Also last year, Raymond James paid more than $8 million in restitution to settle charges brought by FINRA alleging it failed to reasonably supervise 529 plan share-class recommendations, and as a result customers were overcharged on fees.

That was just last year. For a partial list of some Raymond James settlements over the years, see Violation Tracker of Good Jobs First.

A quick search of the Internet finds no NPR reporting of these and other instances of Raymond James alleged law violations.

In case I missed it, could you please send me some NPR reporting on these and other instances where Raymond James has strayed from its commitment to “people and their financial well-being”? In addition, could you please send me your guidelines for taking money from recidivist corporations?

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

P.S. We have witnessed firsthand this company’s suppressive behavior in case you wish for more information. NPR is not known to be responsive to substantive calls or missives – a subject I have discussed with some of your ombudsman appointees over the years. Same, by the way, for PBS. I hope you’ll be different!