The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a former Transamerica Financial Advisors rep with bilking at least $178,000 from clients as part of what the regulator claimed was a "Ponzi-like scheme."
In a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the SEC said Scott Allen Fries, a former Ohio-based broker and RIA, recommended that victims of his scam, including several of his brokerage customers and their relatives, provided him funds to invest outside of his relationship with his firm between January 2016 and March 2019.
The firm's name was not identified in the complaint, but Fries was with Transamerica Financial Advisors during that period, according to his report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's BrokerCheck website.
Fries was discharged from Transamerica July 18, 2019, for allegedly accepting funds to invest in securities products away from the firm, according to BrokerCheck. Its report also shows he was barred from the industry by FINRA for failing to respond to its request for information and is no longer registered as a broker or RIA.
Transamerica did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. It was not immediately clear from court documents who is representing Fries.