Dawn Bennett, an ex-financial advisor and broker, is sentenced to 20 years in prison for operating a $20M Ponzi scam that involved 46 investors. She also must pay $14.5M in restitution and forfeit another $14M. Many of Bennett’s victims were retirees who heard about her because she hosted a radio…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has taken action against two former Wells Fargo (WFC) representatives. Ex-broker Michael Garris has been suspended for a year after the self-regulatory organization found that he made 26 unauthorized trades in the account of a client who he knew had died. Garris was fired…
Kristofor R. Behn and his Fieldstone Financial Management are now facing US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges accusing them of defrauding retail investors. Behn and the firm, which was a registered investment adviser until March, recommended that their clients invest in Aequitas Management LLC-issued securities. In 2016, Aequitas and…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel has awarded 23 investors $3M in their claim against Spire Securities, its CEO David Lloyd Blisk, and CCO Suzanne Marie McKeown. The broker-dealer and its executives were accused of inadequately supervising former broker Patrick Evans Churchville, whom the investors contend fraudulently sold…
Unregistered investment advisers (IAs) David Wagner and Mark Lawrence, Downing Investment Partners, Downing Partners, and Downing Digital Healthcare Group are now facing US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges accusing them of involvement in an $8M scam that allegedly defrauded dozens of healthcare fund investors. Wagner and Downing are also…
A federal jury has found Leon Vaccarelli guilty of 21 counts of fraud and money laundering. Vaccarelli, a former registered The Investment Center broker, an ex-IC Advisory Services-associated investment adviser, and the owner of LWLVACC who conducted business through Lux Financial Services, is accused of defrauding investors, including elderly clients,…
Investment Advisor Allegedly Overcharged Clients $367K in Advisory Fees The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed investor fraud charges against investment adviser Stephen Brandon Anderson, accusing him of defrauding clients and overcharging them at least $367K in advisory fees. Anderson ran River Source Wealth Management, LLC. The formerly…
Just weeks after Direct Lending Investments (DLI) announced to private fund investors that it was suspending redemptions and withdrawals after one borrower defaulted on a $191.3M loan, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed civil charges against the registered investment adviser (RIA). The regulator contends that Direct Lending engaged…
Raymond Montoya, a former Boston hedge fund manager, is sentenced to 14 years in prison. According to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Montoya, 70, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and charging an unlawful monetary transaction after the government accused him of…
Dennis Gibb, an investment adviser and the owner/president of Sweetwater Investments Inc., has pleaded guilty to falsification of records and wire fraud. Gibb has also settled parallel civil charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which part of that deal involves the liquidation of his Sweetwater…