Galvin Charges Firm With Unregistered, Fraudulent Advising: Enforcement

November 23, 2016 at 11:42 PM
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Massachusetts regulators charged Bruce Horowitz and his company with unregistered and fraudulent investment advisory activities by taking money for his trading software, but making no trades.

The complaint calls for banning Horowitz, of Walpole, and his company, Massive Abundance, LLC, from securities business in Massachusetts, imposing a permanent cease and desist order on them, and ordering them to make full restitution to investors.

According to Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, Horowitz has a record of grand larceny and fraud in New York.

"This case highlights the  need  for investors to  check on persons offering investment advice, no matter how rosy the picture of anticipated returns," Galvin said in a statement. "Once again I urge investors to contact my office at 800-269-5428 to check on registration status and disciplinary history before turning over any money in connection with investments."

The complaint states that first developed trading software for his own accounts 17 years ago, then set up Massive Abundance, LLC. He moved to Massachusetts seven years ago.

According to the complaint, Horowitz met some of his victims by attending other financial advisors' "seminar dinners" on equity indexed annuities. The complaint alleges that he presented himself as having developed proprietary trading software that would lead to high returns and profits. He promised to invest in futures and equities, but pocketed "a lion's share of the money," according to the complaint.

Between November 2014 and March 2015, the complaint charges that Horowitz solicited $15,000 from a Newton investor, $10,000 of which was an upfront fee and the rest to be invested. However, in the following nine months, there was no trading activity.

"Horowitz entered into similar arrangements with other Massachusetts investors, charging upfront fees of at least 200% of the value of the investors' trading capital and retaining those fees despite his lack of trading activity and his failure to generate profits," the complaint noted.

In testimony before the Securities Devision, Horowitz said his software system could not properly manage the market volatility of 2015. He said he kept "tweaking" and "fine-tuning" his software system but over 238 days he made no trades in the account of the Newton investor.

"Horowitz and Massive Abundance exercised discretion over the accounts of Massachusetts investors and gained significant profit from their fraudulent and unregistered activity," the complaint states.

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