The Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a fraud judgment against an ex-RIA/broker who had been accused of defrauding three retired clients out of more than $1.85 million, it said Tuesday.
One day earlier, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee entered a final consent judgment in the SEC’s previously filed enforcement action against Jay Costa Kelter of Marietta, Georgia, according to the SEC.
According to his profile on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website, the last FINRA-registered firm he worked as a broker for was Berthel Fisher, for six years ending in 2013. He later claimed to at least certain clients that he was working for TD Ameritrade despite not having any relationship with that firm, according to the SEC’s complaint against him.
Kelter and Berthel Fisher didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The SEC’s action against him, filed Nov. 9, 2017, charged him with fraud and alleged that he made material misrepresentations to the three retired clients, including false guarantees concerning investor losses, and misappropriated client funds for his own use. The crimes were committed from 2013 to 2016, according to the suit.
During that time, he was serving as owner of BEK Consulting Partners, a Florida insurance and investment company, previously known as Kelter & Co., that filed for voluntary dissolution in February 2017 and is no longer active, according to the suit.
Kelter “defrauded one client and misappropriated $1.467 million of her funds by selling securities in her account, taking funds from her by forgery and fraud, and transferring the money to Kelter’s company without the client’s knowledge,” the SEC alleged in the suit.