Last week, the SEC filed charges against a San Diego investment advisory firm called Total Wealth Management, its Chief Executive Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, and an investment adviser representative for misleading investors and breaching their fiduciary duties to their clients. The SEC alleges that Total Wealth, its owner, and CEO made secret revenue sharing agreements through which they paid themselves kickbacks and neglected to inform clients of the conflicts of interests created by such agreements. Additionally, Total Wealth and CEO, Jacob Cooper, materially misrepresented the extent of the due diligence they performed on the investments they recommended. CCO, Nathan McNamee, and investment adviser representative, Douglas Shoemaker, breached their fiduciary duties while also defrauding clients by neglecting to reveal conflicts of interest and hiding their kickbacks they got from the investments they recommended.

The SEC further alleges that Total Wealth and Cooper willfully violated antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and that McNamee and Shoemaker either violated the antifraud provisions as well or at least aided and abetted the violations. Total Wealth and company are also being charged with violations of Form ADV disclosure rules as well as the custody rule. The order from the SEC seeks the return of allegedly illegally-received gains plus interest, financial penalties, an accounting, and remedial relief.

If you or someone you know has lost money as a result of an investment, please contact Richard Frankowski at 888-741-7503 to discuss your potential legal remedies.