SEC Charges 38 Entities Over Allegedly Fraudulent Adviser Filings
From the desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged 38 entities with allegedly making material misrepresentations in Forms ADV filed with the SEC between 2025 and 2026. According to the SEC's complaints, the entities used the filings to falsely portray themselves to U.S. investors as legitimate investment advisory firms.
According to ThinkAdvisor, the complaints allege that several defendants used IP addresses tracked to foreign jurisdictions to access the SEC's filing system. The defendants also allegedly failed to respond when SEC legal counsel requested records supporting information contained in their Forms ADV.
The defendants submitted Forms ADV containing material misrepresentations and statements that they could not substantiate. The alleged misrepresentations included listing Colorado business addresses where the defendants had no presence and providing telephone numbers that either had been disconnected or belonged to unrelated businesses.
The complaints also allege that the defendants reported ownership structures and numerical information that matched, or nearly matched, information submitted by numerous other purported exempt reporting advisers (ERAs). The defendants further claimed that independent public accounting firms had audited financial statements for private funds they purportedly advised. According to the SEC, neither of the two named accounting firms appeared in any public registry of federal or state accountancy firms.
The SEC also alleges that websites marketed certain defendants to investors and, in some cases, displayed a fake certificate claiming that the defendant had registered with the SEC, even though it had not.
ThinkAdvisor reports the SEC filed the complaints in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado and charged the defendants with violating Sections 204(a) and 207 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions barring the defendants from violating the charged provisions of the federal securities laws, conduct-based injunctions prohibiting them from filing Forms ADV as exempt reporting advisers, and civil penalties.
Eccleston Law LLC represents investors and financial advisors nationwide in securities, employment, transition, regulatory, and disciplinary matters.
Tags: eccleston, eccleston law, sec enforcement, form adv, securities fraud, investment advisers, sec charges
