U.S. securities regulators have settled with an advisory firm and an executive that allegedly breached securities rules by unfairly allocating trades between client accounts and personal accounts.
In a joint stipulation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dismissed its civil enforcement action against a Chicago-based advisory firm, Barrington Asset Management Inc., and its minority owner, vice-president and chief compliance officer, Gregory Paris, with prejudice — and, at the same time, they filed a settled administrative proceeding.
The SEC alleged that between December 2015 and October 2019, Paris “disproportionately allocated certain profitable securities trades to himself and certain unprofitable trades to his advisory clients,” which breached their fiduciary duties to those clients.
The firm and the executive settled the case, without admitting or denying the allegations.
Under the settlement, Paris is suspended for six months and agreed to pay US$78,490 in disgorgement, a US$40,000 civil penalty and $31,048.24 in interest.