The SEC charged Broidy Wealth Advisors and its owner with overbilling clients and stealing assets from their trusts to pay for personal expenses, including leases on two luxury cars. The firm and owner Marc D. Broidy of Beverly Hills, California received over $1.4 million in illicit gains since February 2011, according to the commission. Allegedly, he used the money to fund his mortgage, overseas trips, and leases on two Mercedes-Benz automobiles.
Broidy took about $865,000 in funds from clients’ trusts for which he was trustee, the SEC said. Further, he billed customers an excess of $643,000, allegedly trying to conceal it by changing management fees charged by broker-dealers that worked with Broidy Wealth Advisors.
“Broidy fell well short of his fiduciary obligations as an investment adviser by misappropriating money and failing to disclose important conflicts of interest to his clients,” said Andrew Calamari, director of the SEC’s New York regional office.
The SEC says Broidy misled advisory clients about investments made in privately held companies by not disclosing his affiliation with them.
“He omitted information about the financial and operational status of those companies, his compensation for soliciting investments, and his role as a board member,” the SEC said in the complaint.
Broidy Wealth Advisors was initially headquartered in East Aurora, New York, and is currently based in Beverly Hills, California..
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