SEC bars ex-LPL broker who stole $1.7 million from clients to buy house

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday said it barred a former LPL Financial advisor, Eric Hollifield, earlier charged with taking money from clients for his own personal use, which  included buying a home.

Prior to September 2021, Hollifield was an investment advisor representative of Hamilton Investment Counsel, an SEC-registered investment advisor based in Dacula, Ga., and a registered representative of LPL, according to his BrokerCheck report. He was also a co-owner of Hamilton Investment Counsel.

The alleged fraud began in 2020, according to the SEC.

That’s when Hollifield defrauded two advisory clients and one brokerage customer by misappropriating their funds for his personal use, according to the SEC . This included taking at least $1.7 million from advisory clients and a brokerage customer in August 2020 that Hollifield used to purchase a home.

Hollifield was “discharged,” meaning fired, from LPL in September 2021 for “failing to disclose outside business activity” to the firm, according to his BrokerCheck report. An LPL spokesperson declined to comment.

Hamilton Investment Counsel closed in 2022 and Hollifield could not be reached to comment.

Hollifield reached the settlement with the SEC without admitting to or denying the Commission’s findings.

Georgia barred him from the securities industry in 2021 for requesting and authorizing a transfer of $1.24 million of client's funds from client's brokerage account without client knowledge, according to BrokerCheck. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. barred Hollifield from the securities industry the same year.

Hollifield started working in the securities industry in 1998, spending time with three other firms before landing in 2016 at LPL.

His outside business activity was linked to a business called Century Warehouse, which he allegedly used to solicit and then take client funds.

“In certain instances, Hollifield solicited, advised, or helped [RIA] clients to invest in Century Warehouse Inc.,  an entity Hollifield controlled or otherwise had account authority over, without disclosing to clients his relationship to Century or the conflict of interest it presented,” according to his BrokerCheck profile.

“When clients invested in Century, Hollifield often immediately wired a significant portion to his own accounts for his personal use,” according to BrokerCheck. “In other instances, Hollifield misappropriated client and customer funds through a variety of schemes and used the money to purchase [his] home.”