The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged John W. Fisher with selling more than $8.5 million of unregistered securities and earning $329,000 in commissions despite not being licensed as a registered representative or affiliated with a registered broker-dealer.
According to the complaint, Fisher marketed the securities, issued by 1 Global Capital, a defunct Hallandale Beach, Florida, commercial lending business, as a safe and secure alternative to the stock market. He baselessly claimed that the investments would achieve high single-digit or low double-digit annual returns, the SEC said.
The SEC previously charged 1 Global, which made high-interest loans to small businesses, as well as its owner and others, with operating a fraudulent scheme to misappropriate millions of dollars from at least 3,600 investors. The SEC also previously charged eight of the firm’s top sales agents with various registration violations.
The Miami Herald reported in December that various court documents place the amount stolen from investors by 1 Global and its agents at $322 million.
In its complaint against Fisher, the SEC is seeking an injunction, disgorgement of allegedly ill-gotten gains with interest and a civil penalty.
For several years, Leech allegedly favored some clients in trade allocations, at the cost of others, amounting to $600 million, according to the Department of Justice.
The firm is making headway in the Florida wealth market with four wirehouse advisors who collectively oversaw nearly $2 billion at their former firms.
“If you're not engaging the estate planning conversation, and the client is talking to somebody who is, those assets are at risk,” Vanilla's CEO said.
“This is not an enormous surprise. The equity of the firm was materially undervalued by the public market,” one banker said.
More than a year after welcoming industry veteran Andy Sieg, the Wall Street giant is under more pressure than ever to resolve organizational dysfunctions and deliver on promised growth.
Streamline your outreach with Aidentified's AI-driven solutions
This season’s market volatility: Positioning for rate relief, income growth and the AI rebound
