Raymond Lucia Sr., a syndicated radio personality and financial advice author, was ordered to pay $50,000 for giving investors misleading information about his “Buckets of Money” wealth-management strategy.

Lucia falsely claimed his strategy to provide inflation-adjusted income to retirees had been empirically backtested during bear markets, according to an initial decision issued Monday by an administrative judge who also barred Lucia from associating with any investment advisor or broker.

The administrative judge also ordered Lucia’s San Diego-based firm, Raymond J. Lucia Companies Inc., to pay $250,000 and revoked its investment advisor registration, according to the order.

Lucia's career received a huge lift thanks to his relationship with uber-celebrity Ben Stein, the self-proclaimed lawyer, economist, actor, screenwriter and financial commentator, who helped promote Lucia's seminar business and increased his media visibility. In 2001, The American Spectator quoted Stein as saying "his advice -- lots of liquidity and very wide diversification -- is so sensible it has saved me from suicide many a night."

Lucia is reviewing the opinion in the case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission and may appeal, said Wrenn Chais, his attorney at Locke Lorde LLP in Los Angeles.

“While we respect the commission and its regulatory processes, we respectfully disagree with the majority of the findings of the opinion and the penalties assessed,” Wrenn said. According to press reports, Wrenn commented that the SEC brought fraud charges against Lucia even though it hadn't received complaints from his firm's clients.

The SEC accused Lucia in September of having promoted his strategy at a series of investment seminars that he and his company hosted for potential clients. According to the SEC, the only backtesting Lucia performed were some calculations made in the late 1990s and two two-page spreadsheets.

The SEC said Lucia used misleading data on inflation rates, investment-advisor fees and returns from real estate investment trusts.

“Judge Elliot’s initial decision vindicates the Division of Enforcement’s original position that Lucia and RJLC misled the investors who attended their seminars by claiming that the Buckets of Money strategy had been successfully backtested when in fact it had not been,” Michele Wein Layne, head of the SEC’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement.

 

— FA Staff contributed to this article.