SEC charges San Francisco adviser with stealing money from client

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged an investment adviser in San Francisco with pretending to manage millions in assets and then stealing from his first client. Nicholas Mitsakos and Matrix Capital Markets, a state-registered investment adviser in California, solicited investors in a purported hedge fund while falsely marketing their track record as highly successful, the SEC alleged in a statement Thursday. “They claimed assets under management in the millions when in fact they did not manage any client assets at all,” the agency said. “They fabricated a hypothetical portfolio of investments earning 20% to 66% annual returns and passed it off to investors as real trading.” In September, a client gave $2 million to Mr. Mitsakos and Matrix Capital Markets to manage. They stole about $800,000 from that client and used most of it for unauthorized personal and business expenses, the SEC charged. “We allege that Mitsakos and his firm tried to lure prospective investors with a mirage of assets under management and phony performance results, and when they finally won some actual business from a client, they proceeded to steal a large portion of it,” Andrew Calamari, director of the SEC's New York regional office, said in the statement. Mr. Mitsakos didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.