8/23/2010
Rhonda Breard filled the airwaves around Seattle with ads selling her financial advisory services using a line taken from the Beach Boys' song Help Me Rhonda. That should have been a tipoff.Earlier this month a judge sentenced Breard to 6½ years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to mail fraud con ...
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7/5/2010
Rose Rudden is looking at a $65,000 fine and at least a one-year bar from supervision after an administrative law judge sided with the SEC last month. The case offers compliance officers as many lessons as the red flags Rudden missed as CCO of RIA Asset & Financial Planning and the broker-dealer Pri ...
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5/17/2010
From Morgan Keegan to William Morgan, CCOs have felt the lash of late from regulators who believe the officers ran afoul of the rules. Nothing may protect you like a compliance program that hums like a well-tuned engine."I think your risk is lowered immensely" by overseeing a well-functioning progra ...
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5/3/2010
Here they come again - more failure to supervise cases, including one against a CCO for neglecting to take appropriate action to investigate red flags and stop questionable conduct (IA Watch, Dec. 7, 2009).The SEC last week moved against CCO Robert Gorgia and colleagues at the now defunct Leeb Broke ...
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2/8/2010
The institution survived the Great Depression but couldn't overcome a deceptive rep who killed himself as authorities closed in on him. Now the whole sordid affair has led to a lawsuit against the RIA that employed the dead adviser on claims of failure to supervise and negligence.The New London (Con ...
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12/21/2009
If your firm sold investors on the investment management program ESI Illuminations Select, you'll take interest in the legal settlement last week between the SEC and the RIA that created the program.Dually registered Equity Services ($830 million in AUM) of Montpelier, Vt., marketed ESI to investmen ...
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12/7/2009
Recent months have featured a few of these cases, in which compliance staff at financial services firms have been cited for failing to keep a close eye on things. The latest one results in a settlement with the SEC by Christie Andersen, a CCO at a Florida broker-dealer.Andersen will be suspended fro ...
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11/2/2009
Recent months have produced a rash of cases alleging a failure to supervise or to perform compliance duties (IA Watch, Oct. 26, 2009). The most recent involves a Banc of America Investment Servicessupervisor cited for failing to supervise a wayward rep.The failure to supervise charge is one that can ...
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7/6/2009
A free lunch can cost dearly. The SEC alleges several reps ripped off seniors invited to a free meal by pitching them unsuitable variable annuities. Also charged is the CCO of both the broker-dealer firm and the affiliated RIA for failing to supervise the reps and ignoring signs of wrongdoing.The ca ...
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1/19/2009
An investor tells IA Week he twice instructed his adviser to pull his funds out of the market. The adviser allegedly ignored the requests and the client suffered huge losses.Sound familiar? Complaints like this naturally go up in a down market. Sometimes the protestations will be legitimate; other t ...
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