SEC Charges Former LPL Advisor With Misappropriating $1.7 Million
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged a former LPL advisor with misappropriating $1.7 million from at least three clients to cover personal expenses, including the purchase of a house.
The former Georgia-based LPL advisor, Eric Hollifield, worked at LPL between October 2016 and September 2021 while additionally serving as a co-owner, managing member, and investment advisor representative of Hamilton Investment Counsel, which also was recently sanctioned by the SEC. LPL and Hamilton Investment Counsel each terminated Hollifield for failing to disclose his outside business activities (OBAs). Hollifield transferred client assets to an outside business absent the client’s permission in January 2020, according to the SEC. Hollifield siphoned the funds to his own accounts, where he used the money to cover personal expenses and eventually purchase a 37-acre property with a home for $1.7 million in Winder, Georgia, according to the SEC.
The SEC has additionally charged Hamilton Investment Counsel and its chief compliance officer, Jeffrey Kirkpatrick, for failing to enforce the firm’s policies related to monitoring Hollifield’s outside business activities. Hamilton Investment Counsel agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a civil penalty of $150,000 while Kirkpatrick also agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a $15,000 civil penalty.
Eccleston Law LLC represents investors and financial advisors nationwide in securities, employment, regulatory and disciplinary matters.
Tags: eccleston, eccleston law, SEC, LPL
