Blake Richards, a Buford, Ga., financial advisor, has been charged by the SEC with misappropriating $2 million of client funds, mostly from retirement accounts, the SEC announced.
Federal District Court Judge Julie E. Carnes granted the SEC’s request for a temporary restraining order against Richards, a registered representative and investment advisor formerly affiliated with LPL Financial. The order restrains Richards from further securities law violations, freezes his accounts, prevents destruction of documents and expedites discovery.
Richards is charged with defrauding six clients by telling them he would invest their funds in fixed-income assets, variable annuities or common stock. None of the investments were ever made and Richards siphoned the money off for his own use, the SEC says. None of the investments appeared on the clients’ brokerage account statements.
At least two of the clients were elderly and, for the most part, the others invested retirement accounts or life insurance proceeds from deceased spouses, according to the complaint. Richards operated under the names Blake Richards Investments and BMO Investments. When LPL confronted Richards about the whereabouts of client funds, Richards said he cleared through Goldman Sachs, but Goldman reportedly had no record of him clearing or custodying through the firm, the SEC said.
The SEC is seeking a permanent injunction, a return of the defrauded money and civil penalties.