SEC Charges Investment Advisor with Multi-Million Dollar Fraudulent Offering

The SEC has charged a New Jersey investment adviser and 3 firms she ran with operating a multi-million dollar offering fraud, including the sale of fraudulent promissory notes to clients. Investment advisor Sandra Venetis told clients the notes were guaranteed by the FDIC and would earn interest of 6-11 percent annually and would be tax free.
Venetis used investor funds to pay business debts and personal expenses and gave investor money to her relatives. In the consent order, Venetis agreed to freeze assets and monetary payments including financial penalties to be determined at a later date. She also agreed that she will be barred her from future association with any investment adviser or broker-dealer.
Venetis’ statements to investors were false and the promissory notes and other offerings were unsupported by any investments, assets, or related revenues. She further fabricated the names and signatures of “doctors” or forged signatures of other people she claimed were recipients of the loans.

The SEC’s complaint also names three relief defendants for the purposes of recovering investor assets now in their possession: Jennifer Venetis (Venetis’s daughter); Kevin Persley (Venetis’s brother); and Venetis LLC (an entity owned and controlled by Venetis).