Ex-finance chief to pay $500 ethics fine
Michelle Sias was banned from securities trading, but résumé didn’t mention it.
Former West Palm Beach Finance Director Michelle Sias, who was asked to leave in September for allegedly fudging her résumé, has agreed to a $500 fine in a settlement with the county Commission on Ethics.
According to the settlement agreement, Sias admitted to violating the county ordinance governing prohibited conduct, and honesty in applications for positions.
After less than a year in office and having received glowing reviews, it was discovered that Sias’ résumé had failed to mention that she had been barred from trading “in any capacit y” by the National Association of Securities Dealers.
City sources said she worked at the Smith Barney trading firm from 1992 to 1998. But, they said, her ré- sumé stretched that to 2002 to cover up the time she spent at another firm, Gruntal & Co., from November 1988 to November 2001, and the September 2002 NASD ruling.
The national Web page of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authorit y, which provides histories of licensed brokers, says Sias was barred after investigators concluded a customer had alleged she’d made an unauthorized trade and demanded she cancel it, but that she instead had faked internal documents to give the appearance a trade had been canceled when it hadn’t.
The report said Sias didn’t admit guilt but consented to the disciplinary action.
While Sias’ position with the cit y didn’t require her to have the securities license, “we were taken, plain and simple,” city spokesman Elliot Cohen said. “She lied to us and we didn’t catch it.”
Former Finance Director Randy Sherman hired Sias full time in January 2012.
Sherman was fired that same month and replaced by an interim director until the cit y hired Jeff Green as finance director in July 2012. Green promoted Sias up the ranks to assistant director, and gave her the top job when he was elevated to cit y administrator in October 2013. Cohen said “it came to the attention” — he didn’t know how — of Norman Ostrau, the cit y’s ethics officer, that Sias had fudged her résumé.
“As soon as we found out, we acted,” Cohen said.
According to the Commission on Ethics negotiated settlement finalized May 7, Sias believed it “in her best interest to avoid the expense and time of litigation” and agreed to pay the $500. However, the document stipulates that “evidence of this offer of compromise and settlement is inadmissible to prove any of the allegations alleged.”