The Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of an unregistered Chicago-based investment advisor and his financial management company for scamming elderly investors out of millions of dollars, the SEC announced Monday. The unregistered advisor was also a fomer broker and a CPA, as well as a recidivist, the agency claimed.

Daniel Glick used money from senior citizen clients’ investments for his own personal and business expenses, including buying a Mercedes-Benz and paying off debts, the SEC says. Glick allegedly also used clients' money to repay other investors.

“Daniel Glick raised millions of dollars from elderly clients by claiming that he would pay their bills, handle their taxes, and invest on their behalf," says David Glockner, director of the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office. "In reality, Daniel Glick used much of their money to do what was best for Daniel Glick.” 

According to the SEC, Glick presented his firm as offering comprehensive financial planning services.  Glick, who ran Glick Accounting Services, had been barred from the business by Finra in 2014. His right to use the Certified Financial Planner designation was revoked in 2011 after he refused to cooperate in an investigation into allegedly stealing $450,000 from members of his own family. In 2013, he entered a consent agreement with the CFP Board admitting he forged signatures of family members.

Glick Accounting Services, which was named as a relief defendant, formally ceased operations in 2014 when his CPA license was revoked. Shortly after his Finra ban, Glick launched Financial Management Strategies, an unregistered investment advisor.

Consumer protection advocates have long criticized the complex regulatory structure of the financial services industry, which requires honest advisors engaged in comprehensive financial planning to file documents with numerous agencies, while allowing dishonest individuals to exploit gaps between different regulators. Many unscrupulous brokers who have been banned by Finra simply keep conducting business by opening unregistered investment advisory firms.

In Glick's case, the SEC charged his investment advisory firm  gave clients false account statements to hide the crimes and requested a cease and desist order.

The SEC complaint did not specify the total amount taken.