SEC Rejects Broker’s Efforts to Start RIA While Behind Bars

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has barred David Scott Cacchione from the securities industry once again. Cacchione was banned in 2009 for helping to mastermind a $100 million financial scam. This time, his bar is for attempting to start a registered investment adviser firm while in jail for the previous crime.

Cacchione, who was released from prison in June, had been sentenced to five years in jail and three years supervised release for pleading guilty to securities fraud. The charge involved pledging clients’ securities without their knowledge to obtain over $45 million in personal loans for a friend. Among those whose money he used was an elderly widow and a children’s charity.

According to the SFGate, in 2007 and 2008 Cacchione, while managing director of Merriman, Curhan, Ford & Co. in San Francisco, gave client brokerage statements to William Del Biaggio III, who doctored them to make it appears as if the securities belonged to him. He did this to secure or renew some $100 million in loans. He used the funds to pay off debt and purchase an ownership stake in the Nashville Predators hockey team.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that some $47 million was lost. Cacchione was ordered to pay almost $50 million in restitution. The SEC, however, said that as of August 2014, he had paid just $502. (Del Biaggio, who was sentenced to eight years behind bars, after also pleading guilty to securities fraud, was ordered to pay $67.5 million in restitution.)

In April, while still in prison, Cacchione registered Montara Capital Management, of which he was chief compliance officer, a managing member, and owner of over 50% of the firm. After his release, he submitted an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking approval of Montara, which he said was an RIA in California.

In September, the SEC filed an administrative proceeding to determine if sanctions against Cacchione were warranted for the application. Earlier this year, the regulator issued an order barring him again. This month, California’s department of securities regulation also barred Cacchione from registering as an investment adviser in the state.

The 2009 securities fraud and this latest incident are not Cacchione’s only run-ins with regulators. According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s broker check database, he was allowed to resign from Smith Barney Shearson in 1994 because the firm was “unhappy” with trading practices in some of his principal accounts. In 2003, he agreed to a 30-day suspension and a $35,000 fine-without denying or admitting culpability-to resolve claims alleging that he sold unregistered securities to customers without providing the proper disclosures while at First Security Van Kasper.

Our investment adviser fraud law firm is here to help investors recoup their losses.

SEC shuts down ex-broker’s attempt to start RIA from jail, InvestmentNews, March 19, 2015

The SEC’s Administrative Proceeding, SEC.gov (PDF)

Securities felon who tried to start investment firm barred, SFGate, March 18, 2015

More Blog Posts:
Over $44M Lost in Alleged Investment Adviser Scam Involving Total Wealth Management, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, March 19, 2015

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. Settles Currency Fraud Lawsuits Involving Pension Funds for $714M, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, March 19, 2015