For Financial Services Firms and Professionals
Paul G Lane
Paul is the founder of Westpath Advisors. He is a highly adept securities industry attorney, strategist, and advocate. He has developed lasting, collaborative relationships with stakeholders in the financial services industry and law enforcement through years as a criminal prosecutor, SEC Enforcement attorney, private practice litigator, and FINRA manager.
He is recognized as a go-to partner and advisor with deep public and private legal experience. He is passionate about quickly unpacking and resolving complex legal and regulatory challenges that might cause unwitting harm to a company’s good name.
Prior to founding Westpath Advisors, Paul managed a highly specialized securities fraud surveillance unit at FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. This frontline investigations unit was charged with detecting and investigating potentially fraudulent and manipulative activity concerning the securities of publicly traded companies.
These investigations uncovered public company fraud, broker-dealer misconduct, market manipulation schemes, crypto-currency scams, private investments in public equity (PIPEs) concerns, insider trading, and other violations of federal securities laws. Paul and his team were lauded by criminal (DOJ), civil (SEC), and international regulators for uncovering and aiding in the prosecution of countless multimillion-dollar fraud and manipulation schemes.
Paul worked in close partnership with nearly every FINRA department in achieving success, including:
- Technology to mine incredibly big data -- eighty-billion-records-a-day big. He collaborated daily with IT to build, implement, and process-improve the innovative market surveillance systems and fintech solutions used in the detection of fraud, trading manipulation, and other misconduct;
- Membership Application Program (MAP), which was integral in the assessment of standards to become a FINRA-registered broker-dealer;
- Market Operations Department, which offered insights into public company corporate actions such as mergers, dividends, stock splits, and name changes; and
- Member Supervision, Member Regulation, and Enforcement, which were partners in the surveillance and examination of brokerage firms and registered persons.
Prior to joining FINRA, Paul was an attorney in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) where he planned and executed complex investigations and lawsuits involving federal securities law violations, including market manipulation, accounting fraud, insider trading, offering frauds, and regulatory reporting and registration violations. Prior to that, he spent three years with a private law firm handling all aspects of civil litigation practice, including client management, depositions, trial work, challenging or leading expert and fact witnesses, and drafting and arguing all pleadings.
Paul served for eight years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office where he prosecuted felony and misdemeanor criminal cases to include homicide, kidnapping, robbery, assault, burglary, and narcotics. He conducted countless jury and bench trials, suppression hearings, grand jury presentations, and search warrant requests.
Let's leverage this experience to find solutions for you and your company.