A federal judge sentenced AdvisorHUB's founder to 18 months in prison for tax evasion on Friday.
Andrew Parish, who pled guilty to the charges earlier this year, was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $341,000 in restitution, and will receive three years of probation. The sentencing document also mentioned mental health counseling.
Parish had been facing up to 24 months in prison as well as a $40,000 fine for having skipped paying taxes in 2009 for a separate business, Axiom Consulting Group, according to court documents.
Parish declined to comment.
ADVISORHUB'S FUTURE
This was not Parish's first brush with legal troubles. Parish worked as an advisor from 1998 until 2001 when he was barred from the industry for three months for unauthorized trades, according to a note in his FINRA BrokerCheck report.
During his brief advisory career he worked at Edward Jones, Fahnestock & Co., a predecessor firm to Oppenheimer & Co., as well as Raymond James.
Parish's website has become something a phenomenon among advisors, providing a mixture of gossip, news and snark, usually under the penname Yoda. Privately, industry insiders complain that the information AdvisorHUB posts, particularly about recruiting deals, is misleading.
The site seems set to continue providing its distinctive take on the industry despite Parish's sentencing.
On Friday, AdvisorHUB published a post poking fun at Oppenheimer & Co.'s technology, which included an alleged photo of a desktop showing the brokerage firm's current platform with the title "Oppenheimer Stuck In The 80s."
Over the weekend, AdvisorHUB published a legal memo from Oppenheimer requesting that the photo be taken down as it was unauthorized and revealed proprietary technology secrets.
AdvisorHUB refused, retorting that: "To say that the firm is filled with ‘legacy’ advisors on the back end of their careers is putting lipstick on a pig. We look forward to our conversation with their counsel. It should be illuminating."
Read more:
