Advisor gets 3 years, podcaster accused of touting illicit securities

September 29, 2025 5:01 PM

For all the good the wealth management industry does for investors, there are always sad stories of clients falling prey to the scams and schemes of unscrupulous advisors.

We've rounded up some of the most notable cases from the past month below. Read on.

Ex-advisor gets 3 years for defrauding clients of $1.2M

A former financial advisor in Denver will spend just over three years in prison over a scam that prosecutors say deprived roughly 30 clients of more than $1.2 million.

Ian Gregory Bell, 36, was sentenced on Sept. 12 to 37 months in prison after pleading guilty in May to counts of wire fraud and money laundering. His scheme included accepting money from clients ostensibly to make low-risk investments but actually for use on personal expenses. Bell, who was sentenced in federal district court in Denver, was also ordered to pay just over $1.2 million in restitution and a $150,000 fine.

From 2000 to 2002, according to prosecutors, Bell used "materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises" to obtain money and property from investors. Rather than put it into the relatively safe investments he had promised, he used it to pay for vacations, jewelry, meals and his fiancée's monthly credit card bills.

He was accused of sending his victims falsified images suggesting they were making substantial gains in their portfolios. Prosecutors said he was able to lure investors in by touting his previous experience at an investment firm. Securities and Exchange Commission records show he was affiliated with the advisory firm Black Swift Group from 2017 to 2018 and then, after a short hiatus, again in 2019.

The SEC made essentially the same accusations in a civil suit it filed against Bell in December. The SEC's action mentions that some of his clients were professional athletes, who aren't identified.

In his criminal case, Bell had originally pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering before pleading guilty to two of the counts several months later.

SEC accuses podcast host of using show to tout unregistered securities

A Florida podcaster and radio host stands accused by the SEC of using his show to drum up tens of millions of dollars for investments in unregistered oil and gas securities.

In a civil complaint filed on Sept. 11 in federal court in Florida, the SEC alleges Charles D. Oliver of Lake Mary, Florida, used his show, "Hidden Wealth Radio," as acting as an unregistered broker and advisor when he raised nearly $52 million for investments from roughly 50 retail investors, including retired seniors. Oliver is also accused of failing to disclose that he was being paid a monthly fee, as well as commissions, for sales of the unregistered oil and gas securities, according to the SEC.

The complaint states that the risky investments were sponsored by a pair of firms: Resolute Capital Partners and Homebound Resources. Resolute paid Oliver for touting the securities through an intermediary called Beacon Global Group, and he ultimately received at least $4.3 million, according to the SEC.

"He frequently touted his investment advisory services through his Hidden Wealth Radio program. Oliver discussed generally tax-minimizing investment strategies, and told his listeners that if they were interested, they should contact him directly for additional information," according to the lawsuit.

The suit gives several examples of Oliver's alleged fraud. In one, a retired man from Arizona became interested in receiving investment advice from Oliver after listening to his radio program and looking at his website.

The man eventually enlisted Oliver to manage his brokerage and bank accounts and began paying Oliver a $1,500 annual fee and a separate fee equal to 1.5% of the assets in his brokerage account. Oliver showed the investor charts and projections for the unregistered securities, claiming that their value would double every 12 to 18 months.

The client invested $410,000 in one of the offerings in February 2020. He has yet to receive his money back. Oliver is charged with selling unregistered securities, acting as an unregistered broker and breaching his fiduciary duty to always put his clients interests first, among securities laws violations.

Stifel pays over $10M in latest settlement over problem broker

Stifel has shelled out again to settle allegations brought by aggrieved investors against former broker Chuck Roberts.

Stifel agreed last month to pay $10.25 million to settle with a client who accused Roberts of breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, fraud, breach of contract and other violations. Roberts, who resigned from Stifel in June and was banned from the brokerage industry the following month, has been at the center of a series of settlements and arbitrations saddling the firm with hefty costs.

In March, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel walloped Stifel with a $132.5 million award — the second-largest in history — over Roberts' recommendations of complex investments known as structured notes. Stifel responded by going to court in May and seeking to have that award tossed after alleging one of the arbitrators in the case was biased.

Before that, a FINRA arbitration panel in October ordered Stifel to pay a pair of investors $14.3 million over Roberts' advice on structured notes. The following month, a separate panel hit Stifel with a $2.4 million award over Roberts' recommendations of structured notes.

Before the latest settlement, Stifel had settled four other customer complaints against Roberts, agreeing to pay about $31.7 million. Roberts' BrokerCheck page shows there are still about 20 pending complaints against him.

The disputes with Roberts have all centered on his recommendations of structured notes, a type of debt security often offering high returns but also usually coming with substantial risks and fees. Before leaving Stifel this year, Roberts had run a practice called CR Wealth Management Group in Miami and New York. Before Stifel, he was at Morgan Stanley and its predecessor, Smith Barney, as well as Oppenheimer, Paine Webber, Lehman Brothers and other firms.

Advisor accused of trying to poach clients for his new firm

The SEC is accusing a California man of fraud for trying to solicit clients for an investment advisory he was planning to start while working for another firm.

In a civil case filed on Sept. 10 in federal court in California, the SEC said Parker Terrill Austin "harbored ambitions of starting his own investment advisory firm" while he was employed at the San Francisco-based firm January Capital Advisors. According to the complaint, Austin sent himself emails containing confidential information on his current employer's clients, including their names and account balances.

He also is alleged to have sent similar information to his outside business partner, with whom he'd eventually set up an RIA called Embarcadero Capital Advisors. Separately, the SEC accused Austin of breaching his fiduciary duty to always put clients' interests first by ignoring the instructions of an investor.

January Capital Advisors fired Austin in December 2023 after alleging "violations of firm policies and procedures related to the safekeeping of client records and adherence to fiduciary duty," according to BrokerCheck. The SEC is seeking to bar Austin from associating with any broker, dealer or investment adviser; disgorgement with prejudgment interest; and civil penalties.

The SEC ended Embarcadero's registration on Aug. 1, 2024, but the industry regulator said the firm has been approved for registration in at least four states.