A Phoenix financial advisor has been barred from the financial industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission for cherry picking investments for favored clients, the SEC announced.
Raymond J. DiMuro, 58, a former principal of Your Source Financial, a formerly SEC-registered investment advisor based in Phoenix, has agreed to the settlement with the SEC without admitting to or denying the accusations.
From at least January 2018 to January 2022, DiMuro carried out the cherry picking scheme by using a block trading account through which he placed trades early in the day but did not allocate the returns until late in the day, according to the SEC complaint. He then assigned trades that had gone up in value to three favored clients and assigned trades that had gone down to other clients, the regulator said.
As a result of DiMuro’s cherry-picking, the favored clients received more than $1 million in day-of-trade profits and Your Source’s other clients lost more than $1 million, according to the complaint.
“There was less than a one-in-a-million probability that the favored clients’ and the other clients’ disparate investment returns was due to chance,” the SEC said.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Arizona.
DiMuro could not be reached for comment.