Advisor Facing Child Porn Charges Suspended by CFP Board
The move comes almost eight months after Daryll Claxton was arrested and charged with over 100 felony counts.
The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has imposed an interim suspension of the CFP certification against an ex-TIAA-CREF advisor who was charged with more than 100 felony counts, including child pornography, and imprisoned in late April.
The interim suspension against Daryll D. Claxton of Havertown, Pennsylvania, became effective Monday, the CFP Board said Friday, noting the interim suspension bars him from using the CFP certification marks.
The CFP Board development comes almost eight months after Claxton was arrested and charged with over 100 felony counts related to the sexual abuse of children through the possession and dissemination of child pornography, which Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer announced April 28.
“The defendant is charged with the possession of more than 2,900 images and 450 videos of children being sexually abused and assaulted by animals and men, including infants and toddlers being raped by adult men,” Stollsteimer said at the time.
After a search warrant was granted by Magisterial District Court Judge Elisa C. Lacianca, detectives searched Claxton’s premises and more than 40 computer and electronic devices were seized for inspection, including desktop computers, laptop computers, external hard drives, flash drives and micro SD cards, according to Stollsteimer.
“Clayton has been in county prison since his arrest in April of 2020 due to his failure to post his $250,000 bail,” Stollsteimer told ThinkAdvisor on Friday. “He will have a status hearing on his case” on Feb. 19 before Judge George A. Pagano, the DA said, noting that Stollsteimer is “prosecuting the case for the Commonwealth.”
“While Mr. Claxton’s alleged illegal actions did not occur on TIAA networks or computers, we immediately terminated him after learning about the charges filed against him by authorities,” a TIAA spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor on Friday.
Claxton was with TIAA from 2018 until his termination earlier this year. His report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website includes an April 27, 2020, disclosure about charges against him that included child pornography, the dissemination of photo/film of child sex acts and criminal attempt to disseminate.
Claxton is no longer registered as an advisor or broker, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.
CFP Suspension
The CFP Board Counsel “discovered that [Claxton] is named as the primary defendant in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Daryll Claxton (Case Number CP-23-CR-0001439-2020), and is charged with more than 50 felony counts, none of which arise out of the provision of financial services,” the CFP Board said Friday.
On Nov. 11, the CFP Board Counsel submitted a motion for interim suspension order requesting that a hearing panel of the the group’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission.
Claxton did not file a response to the motion, as required by Article 2.1.a. of its procedural rules, the CFP Board noted.
On Dec. 10, a hearing panel determined that the CFP Board “demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Claxton’s alleged conduct poses a significant threat to the public and that his alleged conduct significantly impinges upon the reputation of the profession or the CFP marks,” the CFP Board said.
Respondents subject to an interim suspension order must not use the CFP certification marks or state or suggest that he or she is a CFP professional while the interim suspension order is in effect, the group noted.
An interim suspension order is a temporary sanction and does not stop the CFP Board from imposing a final sanction, it pointed out, adding the interim order will remain in place until there is an appeal filed or final order.