13. James H. Garfinkel

13.1. Name and sources

This chapter summarizes James H. Garfinkel (the spelling on the FINRA BrokerCheck individual report; also styled Garfinkle in some informal references). Two public sources were used, as requested:

  • FINRA BrokerCheck, CRD number 5052743, https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/individual/individual_5052743.pdf

  • verae.com, which names Stuart Haber as co-founder and describes the DataCube product. As of this writing the public marketing site does not carry a dedicated biography page for Garfinkel. The product and company description below is therefore taken from verae.com’s company narrative plus Garfinkel’s own public statement of role, not from a fabricated “about the CEO” page.

13.2. Role at Verae

Public professional listings (including a long-standing Facebook work listing) identify Garfinkel as CEO of Verae LLC, from January 2020, based in New York, New York. In that listing he describes Verae’s technology as blockchain-authenticated containers called DataCubes, “which conveniently and securely ensure integrity and enable selective sharing of digital information and records of all sorts,” and he quotes Stuart Haber on the original motivation for timestamping digital objects.

That description matches the public verae.com product: records remain in customer-controlled storage; Verae seals a fingerprint; the scientific core is Haber-style cryptographic timestamping, aimed at compliance and examinations rather than at operating a public chain.

13.3. FINRA BrokerCheck (CRD 5052743)

The following facts are from the public BrokerCheck report. They are registration history, not a Verae claim and not an endorsement by FINRA.

  • Name on the report: James H. Garfinkel

  • CRD: 5052743

  • Current registration: this broker is not currently registered

  • Disclosed events: the report summary states no events disclosed about this broker

  • Examinations recorded on the summary: 0 principal/supervisory exams; 3 general industry/product exams; 3 state securities law exams

  • Investment adviser: BrokerCheck points readers to the SEC IAPD site for any IAR record

Prior broker registrations listed on the report:

  • LPL Financial LLC, CRD 6413, New York, NY, January 2013 – March 2024, registered representative

  • Hornor, Townsend & Kent, Inc., CRD 4031, New York, NY, November 2011 – December 2012

  • Park Avenue Securities LLC, CRD 46173, New York, NY, April 2008 – October 2009

Other employment lines that appear in the same public report family include Abbott Solutions Inc. (insurance advisor, from November 2009) and MPWM Advisory Solutions LLC (investment adviser representative, January 2014 – November 2020). Readers should treat the PDF as the living source; registration status changes.

13.4. Education (public professional listings)

Public professional listings state:

  • Hamilton College, B.A. Economics, class of 1980

  • United Nations International School, class of 1975

Other ventures listed on professional-directory sites (not FINRA, not verae.com) have included Beryl Consulting, Intaglio Blockchain, and earlier broker-dealer roles. Those directory sites are secondary; they are noted here only so that a reader who searches the name is not surprised. They are not used as primary evidence of Verae corporate structure.

13.5. Why this biography is in the briefing

A compliance briefing is not a pitch deck. Garfinkel’s biography is here because the user of this system is entitled to know who is on the commercial and regulatory-facing side of Verae, and because a broker-dealer or RIA CCO will look the name up on BrokerCheck anyway. The honest presentation is:

  • CEO of Verae LLC (public listing, from 2020);

  • a long New York securities-industry registration history ending March 2024 at LPL, not currently registered;

  • no BrokerCheck disclosed events on the current report;

  • not given a biography block on verae.com at the time this document was compiled — Haber is the scientist the site puts on the homepage.

Do not treat a CRD number as a product certification. Do not treat a CEO biography as a control.