SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Ex-Stifel Rep Who Defrauded Widow

The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado entered a final judgment by consent against a former Stifel rep who allegedly misappropriated $451,889 from an elderly widowed client, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

The final judgment enjoins Steven D. Rodemer from violating the antifraud provisions of Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and orders him to pay a civil penalty in the amount of $385,536, the SEC said.

Rodemer, who was barred in March by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority from acting as a broker, agreed on Sept. 3 to pay $385,536 to the SEC to settle the SEC’s claim that he scammed an elderly client.

He agreed to the settlement on the same day the SEC filed a complaint against him in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, claiming he “took advantage of his position as” the widowed client’s advisor and the “power of attorney authority she granted him, by misappropriating $451,889” of her funds.

“Rodemer used the funds for a variety of personal expenses, including to cover construction and maintenance costs on his vacation home in Breckenridge, Colorado, to pay insurance premiums, to fund an undisclosed brokerage account in his wife’s name, to make credit card payments, and to pay for a number of other miscellaneous, everyday expenses like gas and groceries,” the SEC said in the complaint.

Rodemer was registered with Stifel as a general securities representative and general securities principal from November 2011 until he was terminated by the firm Jan. 21, 2020, for taking “money from a client account for his personal use without authorization,” according to a FINRA letter of acceptance, waiver and consent he signed March 23.