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May 11, 2015 at 10:39 AM
The Securities and Exchange Commission Monday said that it had charged a retirement planning firm and its principals who host a financial radio show with falsely telling investors that interests in life settlements they offered and sold were “guaranteed,” “safe as CDs” and “federally insured.”
A month ago, the SEC charged Los Angeles-based Pacific West Capital Group Inc. and its owner with fraud in the sale of life settlement investments.
In its Monday filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against Novers Financial and its principals Christopher A. Novinger and Brady J. Speers, who live in Mansfield, Texas, and host a weekly radio show called the “Retirement Experts Radio Show,” the SEC alleges that from 2012 to 2014, they sold approximately $4.3 million in life settlement interests to 26 investors.
Novinger sold close to $1.1 million in life settlement interests to nine investors and received about $122,400 in commissions, while Speers sold roughly $3.3 million in life settlement interests to 17 investors and received some $392,500 in commissions, the SEC said.
The complaint states that while Novinger and Speers marketed themselves as “The Low Risk, Safe Money Guys,” they “possess little to no training relating to securities and non-insurance related financial products, including life settlements,” and that they “have repeatedly been sanctioned by regulatory authorities,” including the Oklahoma Department of Securities.
The SEC also alleges that they used a bogus “net worth calculator” that improperly qualified some prospective investors for purchases by including income that investors hadn’t received, such as future pension and Social Security benefits.
