The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has initiated an administrative enforcement proceeding against an investment adviser firm registered with the SEC for allegedly failing to file the quarterly Form13F from February 2017 until April 2022.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently announced an enforcement action against and settlement with an investment adviser firm related to solicitation arrangements with online content providers. The investment adviser firm allegedly paid over $8 million to more than 200 social media influencers and online newsletter providers for prospective client referrals without adhering to the required disclosure and documentation under the former Rule 206(4)-3 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The investment adviser firm has agreed to a cease-and-desist order, censure, and a $250,000 civil penalty to settle the charges by the SEC.
On July 26, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that 21 investment advisers agreed to settle charges that they failed to file and deliver their CRS Relationship Summary, also known as Form ADV Part 3, to their retail investors. Click here to read the SEC’s full announcement.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) made it abundantly clear this week that it will be focusing (i.e., exams and enforcement actions) on ESG investing by investment advisers firms (“RIAs”).
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently instituted a cease-and-desist proceeding against an SEC registered investment adviser firm and its principal for failure to disclose material information to a client regarding promissory notes issued by a third-party, which eventually was charged in June 2018 by the SEC with an offering fraud and placed under receivership in December 2018. Click here to view the SEC order in this matter; the following is a summary of the SEC’s allegations in this matter, RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. has not verified the accuracy of such allegations.
On September 28, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed a complaint against an investment adviser representative located in Nebraska for allegedly cherry picking profitable trades for his personal investment account, while disproportionately assigning unprofitable trades to investment advisory client accounts. During the alleged scheme, which ran from January 2017 to March 2018, the SEC asserts that the investment adviser representative earned a 4.4% return on his personal investment account while his disfavored clients earned a negative 12.56% return. Click here to read the SEC’s complaint.
On August 13, 2020 the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed an order instituting administrative cease-and-desist proceedings to a dually registered investment adviser firm/introducing broker-dealer firm for allegedly failing to disclose material conflicts of interest related to its mutual fund share class selection practices, receipt of compensation pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“12b-1 fees”), and money market revenue sharing agreements.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently fined an Iowa-based investment adviser $1 million for alleged cybersecurity failures that led to a data breach that compromised the personal information of its clients. According to the SEC, information from over 5,600 of the investment adviser’s clients was obtained by criminals impersonating independent advisers. The SEC claims that the intruders gained access through weaknesses within the firm’s cybersecurity procedures. Some of these weaknesses had been exposed during previous fraudulent activity. The investment adviser allegedly failed to update and fix those issues.
