Massachusetts Fines Bush Brother’s Brokerage $30,000

BOSTON —  A stock brokerage firm owned by President Bush’s brother was fined $30,000 and barred from trading with the general public for one year for failing to register in Massachusetts, a regulator said Friday.

Securities regulators said the New York firm of J. Bush & Co., whose only principal is Jonathan J. Bush, violated the state’s registration laws.

Under an agreement this week with Secretary of State Michael J. Connolly’s securities division, the firm agreed also to buy back stocks sold to Massachusetts clients over the last 43 months.

“What we’re really saying here is that the state doesn’t have confidence that Mr. Bush has adequate compliance procedures in place to protect smaller investors,” Neal Sullivan, the deputy secretary of state in charge of the securities division, said Friday.

Earlier this year, the state of Connecticut also fined Jonathan Bush’s company and ordered him to reimburse his clients there, the Boston Globe reported Friday.

Sullivan said Bush was first told in February that he had failed to comply with the registration regulations, when he contacted the division.

“At that time, we had no idea of the volume of the transactions, nor did we have any inkling that he would continue to be transacting business,” Sullivan said.

The consent decree, signed Tuesday, indicates that J. Bush & Co. engaged in 880 transactions with non-institutional customers since January, 1988.

The secretary of state’s office sent Bush a written notice of violation in April, Sullivan said.

A receptionist at J. Bush & Co. said Bush was out of town and not available for comment. Under the agreement, Bush is limited to business with past clients and with “accredited investors,” customers with annual incomes of at least $200,000.

Sullivan said that regulators were “dismayed” that Bush continued making transactions while the consent decree was being prepared.

“Anyone who has been notified that he is violating state law and continues to do so certainly exemplifies a cavalier attitude toward the registration laws,” Sullivan said.