The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has imposed an interim suspension on a New Jersey financial advisor who was charged in August by with possessing and distributing child pornography.
The board’s sanction against Nicholas Spagnoletti, 52, of Madison, N.J., was effective as of September 27, according to a news release from the CFP Board.
Prosecutors alleged that between April 15 and August 12, Spagnoletti uploaded, possessed and distributed images of child pornography on his personal cell phone. A news release from the Morris County, N.J., prosecutor’s office said the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted them to the upload.
He is charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of children for the distribution of child pornography and third-degree endangering the welfare of children for the possession of child pornography.
The CFP Board said its counsel, on August 18, filed a motion for interim suspension, to which Spagnoletti did not file a response.
“After reviewing the matter, a hearing panel of the commission determined that CFP Board demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Spagnoletti’s alleged conduct poses a significant threat to the public and that his alleged conduct significantly impinges upon the reputation of the profession or the CFP marks. Therefore, the commission issued an interim suspension order to Mr. Spagnoletti,” the board said in a statement.
Spagnoletti, who has been in the industry for more than three decades, according to his BrokerCheck profile, was one of the leaders of Parsippany, N.J.-based MACRO Consulting Group (MACRO), an independent, hybrid RIA with more than $900 million in assets. He joined Plymouth, Minn.-based Wealth Enhancement Group—a $40 billion independent wealth management firm that has been aggressively buying up advisors this year—in June as part of an acquisition.
MACRO operates under the Wealth Enhancement Group brand as the MACRO Team, with LPL Financial as its broker-dealer. Spagnoletti, who was a senior vice president and financial advisor at the firm, has been fired, according to a statement from the company at the time of the allegation.
The CFP Board’s automatic interim suspension order stipulates that Spagnoletti’s right to use the CFP certification marks is suspended pending CFP Board’s completed investigation.
An Interim suspension order is a temporary sanction and does not preclude CFP Board from imposing a final sanction. An Interim suspension order will remain in place until the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission or, if an appeal is filed, the Appeals Committee, issues a final order, the board said.