Articles Tagged with Coastal Investment Advisors

Ex- Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. President Michael Donnelly and the firm’s affiliated broker-dealer will settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges accusing him of bilking brokerage customers and advisory clients of close to $2M. According to the SEC complaint, Donnelly’s 13 victims included unsophisticated investors and older investors belonging to the 64 to 85 age group.

Donnelly would get clients to write checks to Donnelly Advisors Group. The money was supposed to pay for their investments. Instead, the regulator says, rather than investing the funds, Donnelly took investor money and used them to pay for his own living expenses and for his children’s private school tuition.

From ’07 to ’14, he hid the securities scam by providing bogus trade confirmations, account statements, and other fake information that made it appear as if investors had actual investments that were doing well. For example, he generated portfolio reports that listed fake investments. He even set up an online report for at least one client in which he inserted ticker symbols of stocks he supposedly bought for that individual. Donnelly also modified brokerage statements and trade confirmations to make clients think they were holding certain investments.

According to the criminal action against him, which is discussed below, when one couple asked Donnelly for their money, he allegedly convinced another investor to liquidate part of an annuity while making it seem as if the funds were to go toward buying out another investor. He then used the money to give the couple back their funds. Donelly’s investment scam failed last year after he was caught.
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