SEC Obtains Two Final Judgments Against Massachusetts Investment Advisor
On May 29, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Judge George A. O’ Toole Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered Final Judgments against the former registered investment adviser Sage Advisory Group, LLC (Sage) and its principal Benjamin Lee grant, both of Boston MA, in two fraud cases. In the first case, the Commission alleged that Benjamin Lee Grant (Lee Grant) fraudulently had his customers transfer their assets to Sage, his new advisory firm. According to the SEC, Mr. Grant made false and misleading statements to his previous member firm’s customers. He also allegedly misled customers by telling them that any changes in their accounts were being done at the suggestion of First Wilshire. The SEC alleged that in order to get his customers to sign up as advisory clients with Sage, Mr. Grant would falsely suggest that they might suffer disruption in First Wilshire’s management of their assets unless they signed and returned the new advisory and custodial account documents as soon as possible. In August 2014, a Federal District Court jury found Sage and Lee Grant liable for fraud under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 along with other charges.
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