SEC Charges Arete Wealth Broker-Dealer and Advisory Firms, Their Chief Compliance Officer, and Several Representatives in Connection With Illegal Securities Offering

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Joey Miller, Jeff Larson, and Randy Larson, formerly dually registered personnel with Arete Wealth Management LLC, a broker-dealer, and Arete Wealth Advisors LLC, an affiliated investment adviser, for fraud, registration violations, and aiding and abetting Arete Wealth Management’s recordkeeping violations. The SEC also charged Arete Wealth Advisors and its Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel, UnBo (Bob) Chung, with various violations of the federal securities laws related to a coverup of the representatives’ allegedly fraudulent conduct and other compliance failures, and charged Arete Wealth Management with recordkeeping violations. The SEC’s charges stem from a previously-described scheme in which Richard Dale Sterritt, Jr.