The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against former registered representative Mark Hopkins of Grand Blanc, Michigan, for misappropriating at least $1.15 million from at least five customers.
The firm with which he was associated, American Portfolios Financial Services, permitted him to resign in December 2018 for “accepting customer funds for an investment not on the books of the broker-dealer without obtaining pre-approval,” according to his BrokerCheck record.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority barred Hopkins in May 2019 for failing to complying with its request for information in connection with an inquiry into his actions.
According to the SEC's complaint, Hopkins represented to certain customers that he would invest their funds in an investment program at a local credit union that would be relatively short term and would return a 6% or 7% profit.
The complaint alleges that five of his customers transferred a total of roughly $1.15 million to Hopkins for investment in the program. According to the complaint, however, the investment program Hopkins described never existed. Rather than investing the customer funds, Hopkins deposited them into an account he controlled at the credit union and misappropriated them. The SEC alleges that Hopkins provided the customers with falsified account statements to conceal his fraud.
The SEC is seeking injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and prejudgment interest, and civil money penalties.
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