Most Common Investment Adviser Violations
Six investment adviser violations make up roughly 60% of all deficiencies the SEC’s staff find when they investigate adviser offices, according to Renee Esfandiary, assistant director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations. The investment adviser violations include: Compliance Rule Violations include not have written policies and procedures to ensure firm operations adhere to […]
FINRA Bars Broker For Market Manipulation
FINRA barred broker George Johnson from the securities industry for operating a manipulative trading scheme to artificially inflate the market price and trading volume for the common stock of IceWEB, Inc. FINRA additionally sanctioned Christoper Wynne, Johnson’s supervisor, suspending him for two years in all capacities, barring him in a principal capacity, and fining him […]
Texas REIT Subpoenaed Following FBI Raid
Management of real estate investment trust United Development Funding IV, a hedge fund accused of operating as a Ponzi scheme, has been subpoenaed to turn over company documents to a grand jury. Last week, the FBI raided the REIT’s offices outside of Dallas. While performing their search, “law enforcement officers served executive officers of the trust […]
Texas REIT Offices Raided By FBI
The FBI raided the office of a Texas REIT, United Development Funding IV, this week. The firm saw its stock price drop 81% in the past two months after a hedge fund alleged it was operating for years like a Ponzi scheme. “The FBI is lawfully present and conducting law enforcement activity” at the UDF […]
Questar Advisor Allegedly Sold Fraudulent Securities
The Frankowski Firm is investigating complaints regarding and the termination of former Questar Capital Corporation advisor Kevin Wanner. The complaints allege that The North Dakota Securities Department issued a cease and desist order claiming that Wanner sold time certificate of deposit securities purporting to represent an investment in an FDIC insured interest bearing account and further misrepresented […]
FINRA Bars Two Advisers Following Broker Fraud
FINRA has barred two Buffalo, New York advisers, Timothy S. Dembskyi and Walter F. Grenda, from the securities industry for broker fraud in relation to the sale of a hedge fund, the Prestige Wealth Management Fund, LP. Dembski and Grenda’s misconduct occurred while they were employed with Mid Atlantic Capital Corporation. FINRA discovered that Dembski […]
Broker Lies About Charging $11M In Commissions For Nontraded REITs and BDCs
FINRA charged a broker for lying to a Native American tribe about the $11 million in commissions he charged when he sold the tribe $190 million in nontraded real estate investment trusts and business development companies. Between June 2011 and January 2015, broker Gopi Krishna Vungarala “regularly lied to his customer, a Native American tribe, regarding […]
Former Wedbush Securities Broker Defrauds Elderly Customer
In July 2014, Michael Winegar, formerly a broker with Wedbush Securities, allegedly convinced an elderly customer to pay him $100,000. Winegar told the 85-year-old customer that he would use the funds to create an independent advisory firm through which Winegar would supposedly satisfy the $100,000 debt by providing the customer with free investment advice […]
SEC Reaching End Of Case Against Adviser Who Refuses To Defend Herself
The SEC will reach the end of its case today against a financial adviser who refuses to defend herself in the agency’s in-house enforcement proceeding, noting constitutional reasons. Dawn Bennett, CEO of Bennett Group Financial Services LLC in Washington, D.C., and her attorneys have blown off the proceeding which began on Wednesday and will close […]
Operator Of Two NC Companies Pleads Guilty To Securities Fraud
Barry Carlton Taylor, operator of two companies in Franklin, North Carolina, pleaded guilty earlier this week to fraud by commodities pool operator and concealment of money laundering charges, after defrauding investors out of about $2.5 million. Beginning in at least August 2011, Taylor solicited investment funds from at minimum eighteen victims totaling roughly $2.5 million. […]