Customer’s hacked email figured in Shawnee broker’s suspension

A broker in Shawnee was suspended for 30 days by regulators in a case in which a customer’s email account had been hacked.

Shawna Marie Pilsl was assessed a deferred $5,000 fine and suspended through Oct. 7 after falsely stating she had verbally confirmed a customer’s two wire transfers totaling $70,500, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

The regulatory authority said Pilsl instead had acted based on emails from the customer that turned out to have been sent by “an impostor posing as the customer, who had hacked into the customer’s email account.”

Only one of the transfers took place, and Pilsl’s employer, Commonwealth Financial Network, reimbursed the customer $20,500.

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 1:30 AM with the headline "Customer’s hacked email figured in Shawnee broker’s suspension."