Hector May

Securities America Advisors Fined $1.75M For Allegedly Failing to Protect Customers From Ex-Broker Hector May Who Stole $8M

Published on: July 15, 2021 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SEC Said Firm Didn’t Implement Proper Safeguards To Prevent Misappropriation

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined Securities America Advisors $1.75M for allegedly not doing enough to protect customers from having their money stolen by a former registered representative who misappropriated $8M from at least 15 client accounts. Hector May has pleaded guilty to investment advisor fraud.

Securities America Advisors is the RIA arm of Securities America, Inc., which is owned by Advisor Group Holdings Inc.’s Securities America Financial Corporation. Securities America has been the introducing broker for Securities America Advisors customers.

Two Former Brokers Sentenced in Multimillion-Dollar Ponzi Frauds

Published on: August 13, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

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 show. In 2018, Bennett was convicted by a jury on federal charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements on a loan application.

According to evidence given at trial, Bennett solicited investors for her online clothing business DJB Holdings, LLC, also known as DJBennett.com, touting a 15% yearly interest rate through promissory and convertible notes.

Family Files $18M Investor Fraud Lawsuit Against Securities America Alleging Broker Fraud

Published on: March 27, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Jamieson family has filed a broker-dealer fraud lawsuit against Securities America. They are seeking $18M in damages related to the actions of one of the firm’s former brokers, Hector A. May, who late last year pleaded guilty to operating an $11M Ponzi scheme that went on for years. May now faces 25 years in prison. Securities America fired him last year in the wake of the fraud allegations against him.

Last month, the Jamieson family sued May and Securities America. They claim that they lost $18M from working with May, who had been their adviser since 2001. The family contends that the former Securities America broker and his daughter Vania May Bell stole millions of dollars from them. In addition to working as a Securities America broker, May also was president and CCO of Executive Compensation Planners Inc. (ECP), which is no longer in operation. Bell served as ECP’s controller.

The plaintiffs contend that May and Bell advised them in a manner that made it possible for the two of them to keep defrauding the family. The Jamiesons are accusing Securities America of not performing its duties by:

Investor Fraud: Ex-HCR Wealth Advisors Advisor Who Stole $1.2M from Pro Athlete Makes a Deal with the SEC, Investment Adviser and His Daughter Settle $7.9M Ponzi Scam Case, and Texas-Based Developers to Pay Over $50M in E-B Offering Scam

Published on: December 17, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former HCR Wealth Advisors financial adviser Admits to Defrauding Pro Athlete of $1.2M

Jeremy Joseph Drake, an ex-HCR Wealth Advisors financial adviser, has agreed to a consent judgment in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against him in which he admits that he defrauded a pro athlete and his wife of $1.2M while misleading them about how much he was actually charging them to manage about $35M of their money.

The US government contends that Drake told the couple that he was charging them less than most clients to manage their assets. Instead, they ended up paying $1.2M more in management fees. Drake, meantime, was personally paid $900k in “incentive-based compensation” related to these fees. He is accused of fudging financial statements to them, lying, and then later, after admitting to what he’d done, pressuring the couple not to report him by saying that this could lead to “bad publicity” for the athlete.