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John Rafal Barred From Securities Industry

The SEC barred Connecticut investment adviser John Rafal for hiding a referral fee from a client and then attempting to thwart the SEC's investigation. He was also pay $577,297 in penalties. Rafal, the former president and CEO of Essex Financial Services Inc. in Essex, Connecticut, obtained a new customer with accounts valuing over $100 million from Peter D. Hershman, a Connecticut attorney, according to the SEC order. Rafal agreed to pay Hershman $50,000 annually from the advisory fees paid to Essex by the client, an elderly widow, the order said. As part of the original agreement, Hershman was to become a registered investment adviser. But Hershman never took the test required to become an RIA, making him ineligible to receive the referral payments. Rather, between early 2011 and April 2013, Rafal and Hershman disguised the referral payments as fake invoices for legal services to the Essex client and did not disclose them to the client. When Essex stopped the arrangement, Rafal paid [...]

By |January 10th, 2017|Press Releases & News, SEC|
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Ash Narayan Banned For Defrauding Pro Athletes

Former financial adviser Ash Narayan agreed to be barred from associating with brokerage or advisory firms to settle regulators' allegations that he secretly received nearly $2 million from companies that he invested his professional athlete clients in for at least five years. Narayan additionally placed clients in unsuitable private investments and misrepresented himself as a CPA, according to a complaint filed by the SEC. Narayan, who was managing director of the Irvine, California office of RGT Wealth Advisors, a Dallas firm with about $4.3 billion in assets under management, was temporarily suspended by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards in October, pending investigation of the allegations. In February, RGT Wealth Advisors terminated Mr. Narayan, who had worked there since 1997, according to the SEC complaint. The alleged fraud occurred between 2010 and early 2016, during which time he directed $33 million to a company he was heavily involved with and knew was in poor financial condition. [...]

By |December 30th, 2016|Fraud, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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FINRA Files Complaint Against Dawn Bennett

FINRA filed a complaint against Dawn Bennett for failing to testify in its investigation of possible fraud related to her clothing company. Bennett did not appear for testimony on four different occasions between April and September of this year, violating FINRA's rules, according to FINRA's complaint. The charges come roughly a year after the regulator started looking into her for allegedly engaging in fraud while working at Western International Securities. Last year, Dawn Bennett allegedly solicited her employer's clients in a debt deal that supposedly was guaranteed by her retail clothing business at DJBennett.com. She sold roughly six million dollars worth of promissory and convertible notes to around thirty investors, a substantial number of whom were elderly and included Western's customers, FINRA's complaint states. FINRA discovered that she potentially misappropriated investor funds, committed fraud, and performed undisclosed outside business activities and private securities transactions. Western allowed Bennett to resign November of last year. “Evidence gathered during the investigation reveals that [...]

By |December 2nd, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA, Fraud, Legal Matters, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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Levi David Lindemann Receives 6-Year Sentence For Ponzi Scheme

Levi David Lindemann, a Minnesota investment advisor, received a six-year prison sentence for stealing from clients and operating a Ponzi scheme, according to the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Lindemann was sentenced to 74 months imprisonment by a U.S. District Court, having pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal mail fraud and money-laundering charges. He was the owner and operator of Gershwin Financial Inc., which did business as Alternative Wealth solutions, from 2009 to 2014. “Lindemann abused his position of trust as a financial adviser to steal from his clients, including the elderly,” Mike Rothman, Minnesota's commerce commissioner, said. “Lindemann defrauded his victims by promising to put their money in legitimate, safe investments when he actually used the funds to pay for personal expenses and Ponzi-type payments to other clients to cover up and continue his fraud.” According to Levi David Lindemann's guilty plea, he solicited funds from roughly 50 investors and said he would “use the invested funds to buy secured [...]

By |November 28th, 2016|Broker Check, Fraud, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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