SEC bars RIA chief compliance officer previously found guilty of fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday barred the former chief compliance officer of a defunct upstate New York registered investment advisor who was convicted of wire fraud last year and sentenced to three years in prison in March.

Jennifer Campbell, who had been office manager and chief compliance officer at an investment advisory firm based in Buffalo, New York, last November pleaded guilty to wire fraud. From 2018 to 2021, Campbell, 48, used her access to client accounts to steal more than $500,000 from several clients and from the firm itself.

She wrote checks from client accounts, forging the signature of either the client or a principal at the firm, and then deposited the checks into her own personal account, according to the Department of Justice. The SEC also alleged that, with respect to one client account, Campbell executed unauthorized sales of securities to generate cash that she then misappropriated.

The SEC did not include the name of the firm in Buffalo where she worked, but several news websites last year reported that Campbell had worked at Pratt Collard Buck Advisory Group, which closed at the end of 2021. According to the firm’s Form ADV, it had $262 million in client assets. A spokesperson for the firm on Thursday did not comment.

In addition to the three-year prison sentence in the criminal matter, Campbell was ordered by the Department of Justice to make restitution in the amount of $371,000 and ordered to forfeit $357,000.