Judge Marcia G. Cooke granted the SEC’s request for a temporary asset freeze against Shapiro and a group of his unregistered investment companies, and ordered them to provide an accounting of all money received from investors. A court hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 29, 2017, on the SEC’s request to continue the asset freeze. The SEC’s motion for the appointment of a receiver over Woodbridge and the related companies is pending.
This is the second case the SEC brought this week against plaintiffs who have sought to financially exploit senior investors.
“The SEC’s focus is very much on senior investors and I’d expect that to continue into 2018,” Olga Greenberg, a partner in the law firm of Eversheds Sutherland, told Financial Advisor magazine.
Earlier this week, the SEC charged North Carolina-based investment advisor Stephen C. Peters with running a Ponzi scheme that primarily targeted retired and elderly investors.
The SEC’s lawsuit alleges that Peters, through his investment advisor firm VisionQuest Wealth Management, sold promissory notes issued by another one of his companies, VisionQuest Capital, to clients and other prospective investors, from April 1, 2012, to June 30, 2017.
Peters promised that investors’ money would be invested into revenue-producing businesses with neither Peters nor his businesses receiving compensation. Peters also claimed that the VisionQuest Capital notes presented little or no risk of loss and were "guaranteed," the SEC complaint alleges.
Instead, Peters allegedly spent at least $4.4 million to remodel a large farm in North Carolina, purchased fine art for his home and built a vacation home in Costa Rica. Peters also spent at least $4.9 million to make Ponzi payments to earlier investors, according to the SEC's complaint,
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina today announced criminal charges against Peters, including a charge that alleges that Peters attempted to withhold and conceal records from the SEC, fabricated records, and provided false testimony in the SEC's investigation of Peters' scheme.