The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently initiated an enforcement action against with an investment adviser firm for allegedly failing to conduct sufficient fee audits which resulted in overcharging more than 10,900 investment advisory accounts, amounting to over $26.8 million in advisory fees. Without admitting or denying the SEC charges, the investment adviser firm has agreed to pay a $35 million civil penalty to settle this proceeding.
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 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 July 28, 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed an order instituting an enforcement action/administrative cease-and-desist proceeding against an SEC registered investment adviser firm for allegedly failing to disclose material conflicts of interest related to its mutual fund share class selection practices, receipt of revenue sharing, avoidance of transaction fees, receipt of compensation pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“12b-1 fees”), and failure to seek best execution.
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.
