California RIA William Jordan settles with SEC on fraud charges

Adviser William Jordan of Orange County, Calif., has settled charges made by the Securities and Exchange Commission that he perpetrated a multi-million-dollar fraud on his clients. In his settlement, Mr. Jordan consented to a permanent injunction. The amount of disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties that he will pay will be determined by the federal district court in Orange County, Calif., the SEC said. The complaint alleges that Mr. Jordan raised more than $71 million from approximately 100 advisory clients from 2011 until 2016 and lied to them about how their funds would be invested, about their investments' performance and about his own disciplinary history. The SEC alleges that Mr. Jordan overstated the value of the assets in several of his 16 private investment funds and then used the inflated values and unrealized "profits" on other investments to overpay management fees and bonuses to himself and his entities. The complaint further alleges that the 16 funds were never audited, despite Mr. Jordan's promises to investors. The open funds, along with other of Mr. Jordan's entities, sought bankruptcy protection in May 2017 and are under the control of an independent restructuring officer.