SEC charges California adviser with cherry-picking
The regulator alleged that Donald Kellen allocated winning trades to his own account
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Donald J. Kellen, an investment adviser representative in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., for conducting a multiyear cherry-picking scheme that defrauded his clients.
According to the SEC’s complaint, from about May 2012 through September 2015, Kellen profited at his clients’ expense by allocating profitable trades in an omnibus account at Laurel Wealth Advisors in La Jolla, Calif., to his own account, rather than allocating those trades to client accounts.
The alleged misuse of his omnibus account enabled him to engage in riskless day-trading, according to the complaint.
On Aug. 26, 2019, the SEC entered settled administrative and cease-and-desist orders against Laurel Wealth Advisors and Joseph C. Buchanan, another investment adviser representative previously associated with that firm.
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