SEC Charges LendingClub Asset Management and Former Executives With Misleading Investors and Breaching Fiduciary Duty

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged San Francisco-based LendingClub Asset Management LLC (formerly known as LendingClub Advisors LLC) and its former president Renaud Laplanche with fraud for improperly using fund money to benefit LendingClub Corporation, LCA’s parent company that Laplanche founded and for which he served as CEO. LCA and Laplanche along with Carrie Dolan, LCA’s former CFO, also were charged with improperly adjusting fund returns. All three have agreed to settle the agency’s charges against them and will pay more than $4.2 million in combined penalties. The SEC also barred Laplanche from the securities industry. According to the SEC’s order, LCA provides investment advisory services to several private funds that purchase loan interests offered by LendingClub Corporation, a publicly-traded online marketplace lending company.