DALLAS: Priest/stockbroker suspended amid allegations
Episcopal News Service. August 26, 2009 [082609-02]
Pat McCaughan
Bishop Suffragan Paul Lambert of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas said August 26 that the Rev. William Warnky, a priest-stockbroker, has been suspended from both vocations -- at least for the time being.
Warnky served as a part-time non-stipendiary priest at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church and also worked for First Canterbury Securities, a northeast Dallas firm that offered investment opportunities ranging from corporate stocks to church bonds. Raymond Jennison, the firm's owner, is also a Dallas-area priest.
Last week, securities regulators suspended Warnky's registration as a broker, citing his failure to comply with an order to repay $50,000 to a former client, D.R. Marshall, who alleged the priest defrauded him.
Diocesan officials inhibited Warnky after learning from an investigative reporter that Warnky failed to disclose a 2006 court sentence of ten years' probation for a $50,000 delinquency in child support payments to his second wife, according to Lambert.
"He has been inhibited for a minimum of 90 days, in accordance with the Title IV procedures in the constitutions and the canons of the Episcopal Church" which govern clergy discipline, Lambert said in an August 26 telephone interview from his Dallas office.
"The information has been turned over to the standing committee, who acts as the advisory council in this regard," he said
"He will be appointed an advocate to help him through the process of Title IV proceedings and if before then he decides to voluntarily submit to discipline the Episcopal Church will not go forward," said Lambert. "Or, if he renounces his orders, the proceedings will not go forward. All of those are possibilities."
Lambert said he expected to meet with Warnky on August 27. Warnky was ordained to the diaconate in 1976 and to the priesthood in 1977 by Bishop Archibald Donald Davies in the Diocese of Dallas.
Lambert said Warnky had held a dual role for many years. "He was working as a stock broker, but apparently not very well," he said. "He has been nonstipendiary" (serving a congregation without a salary) the last ten years or so."
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records indicate that on August 18, Warnky was suspended for failure "to comply with an arbitration award or settlement agreement or to satisfactorily respond to a FINRA request to provide information concerning the status of compliance" in a dispute with a client.
Warnky had denied any wrongdoing. He did not return Episcopal News Service calls on Wednesday.
According to local news reports the client who accused him was also a parishioner. D.R. Marshall told regulators that from 2004 to 2007 Warnky made unauthorized trades that cost him $100,000. Marshall could not be reached for comment.
Taylor Jennison, who identified himself as the son of the Rev. Raymond Jennison, owner of First Canterbury Securities, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he did not believe Warnky actively worked for the firm, but may still have a connection to it. He declined comment about the suspension or the allegations against Warnky.
The Rev. Raymond Jennison did not return Episcopal News Service calls.
Lambert said Jennison's First Canterbury Services served as an option for clergy in need of employment but added, "We've always told these fellows they are not to involve that work with any church where they're serving, that they shouldn't be involved with members' of their parishes financial matters.
"In this case, somebody lost money in a trade and all of a sudden we find out all this." He said he had no idea how common it was for clergy to double as stockbrokers. "In this case, we just happen to have two."
He said he knew of no complaints against Jennison.
Warnky has the option of requesting a hearing with the standing committee. The committee would have 14 days in which to respond. "Otherwise, they'll just deal with this at their normal meeting, the second Tuesday of every month," he said.
"It's a pretty long process," he added.
Not so for his other vocation.
In a telephone interview from FIRNA's media relations office in Washington, D.C. office, George Smaragdis said Warnky's days as a stockbroker ended August 18, the date his registration was revoked.
"If someone's been barred from the industry, that's it," he said, "they've been barred."