SEC charges Nebraska hybrid adviser with cherry-picking scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Corbin L. Lambert, the former CEO of Continuum Financial, an Omaha, Nebraska, state-registered RIA, with conducting a cherry-picking scheme that defrauded his clients.

According to the SEC’s complaint, from at least January 2017 through March 2018, Lambert placed options trades using Continuum Financial’s omnibus account. But he put off allocating the securities to clients’ accounts until he saw how the securities performed over the course of the day.

The complaint alleges that he then disproportionately cherry-picked the profitable trades to be allocated to his personal account and allocated the unprofitable trades to his clients’ accounts. As alleged in the complaint, Lambert misrepresented to his clients that trades would be allocated in a fair and equitable manner, and he concealed his misconduct from the other principals of Continuum Financial.

The SEC’s complaint charges Lambert with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

Lambert is also a registered representative affiliated with Securities America, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck database.