SEC Orders Atlanta Investment Firm To Pay $585,000
The SEC has ordered Atlanta, Georgia investment firm Timbervest to pay $585,000 in a long-running dispute regarding the sale of two tracts of timberland. The firm's CEO, Joel Shapiro, stated that it will continue to fight the SEC in federal court. The SEC started investigating Timbervest in 2010, and in September 2013 the SEC initiated an enforcement action that accused the firm of violating federal securities laws. The SEC alleges that in 2006 and 2007 Shapiro, Chief Investment Officer Walter William Anthony Boden III, Chief Operating Officer Dondald David Zell Jr., and President Gordon Jones II received over $1 million in unauthorized, undisclosed real estate commissions paid out of the pension plan assets of a large client. In August of last year, an SEC administrative law judge ruled that Timbervest had violated the Investment Advisers Act and ordered it to pay $1.9 million. Timbervest appealed, stating that the evidence did not support the finding of violations or the sanctions. In [...]