SEC bars adviser charged with fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday permanently barred Tamara Steele, owner of an Indianapolis-based investment advisory firm, who had been charged with fraud.

Separately, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana entered a judgment against Steele and her firm, Steele Financial Inc., that includes $845,760 of disgorgement and a $75,000 civil penalty. According to the press release, Steele also agreed to shut down Steele Financial.

In 2018, the SEC charged that between 2012 and 2016, Steele and her firm sold $15 million of the securities of Behavioral Recognition Systems Inc., a company the SEC charged with fraud in 2017. Of that total, $13 million worth were sold to 120 of the advisory firm’s clients.

According to the SEC complaint, Steele and her firm earned more than $2.5 million in commissions on the sales but did not disclose those commissions. In fact, Steele submitted false invoices in an attempt to conceal what was going on, according to the regulator.