SEC Charges Compliance Director with Defrauding Investors and Stealing Brokerage Firm Assets

The SEC charged a compliance director with "fleecing investors" and stealing money from the brokerage firm where he worked.

The SEC alleged that the compliance director opened three brokerage accounts in order to misappropriate investor funds, including a secret account with his then-employer, Trident Partners Ltd. According to the SEC, the compliance director would solicit investors to buy stock in well-known companies or supposed start-ups on the verge of going public. However, the securities were never actually purchased.

Instead, after investors wired their funds to bank and brokerage accounts that the compliance director set up and controlled, the money was wired immediately to a bank account in the Philippines or withdrawn in small increments from ATM machines. The SEC also found that the compliance director stole commission checks meant for Trident Partners and deposited them in outside accounts that he used in the scheme.

See: SEC Order.