A Morgan Stanley branch manager has been charged with fraud by Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin's office, the Boston Globe reports.

In a filing released late yesterday, Masschusetts regulators charged David Varela, who ran Morgan Stanley's Boston Back Bay office, with securities fraud and dishonest conduct for allegedly pressuring clients into buying the company's mutual funds and Van Kampen funds over other nonproprietary external portfolios.

"This complaint shows a pattern of reward and punishment that pushed the company's own mutual funds on investors with no regard for the needs and financial goals of those investors," Galvin said in a statement.

Galvin added that Varela still works for Morgan Stanley but not as a branch manager.  

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