Investor Alert: Dawn Bennett Securities Investigation

Investment Losses with Dawn Bennett

Have you suffered losses investing with Dawn Bennett or the Bennett Group Financial Services?  If so, the securities attorneys of The White Law Group may be able to help you recover your losses.

As has been reported, the SEC has pushed to ban Dawn Bennett from the securities industry and levy as much as $15 million in fines and disgorgement against her and her firm, maintaining that she repeatedly overstated assets to investors and frustrated investigators.

The Allegations

The SEC alleges that Bennett attempted to attract new customers by overstating — in submissions to Barron’s and repeatedly on a radio show Bennett hosted called “Financial Myth Busting with Dawn Bennett” — the assets the D.C.-based company managed by up to $1.5 billion. The SEC contends that the firm only ever managed a fraction of that amount.

The SEC further alleges that Bennett misrepresented the assets she managed to Barron’s which led Barron’s to list Bennett as No. 5 on its 2009 list of the Top 100 Women Financial Advisers and rank the firm second in its list of the 2011 Top Advisers in D.C.

Many of the SEC’s witnesses were reportedly former clients of Bennett’s who lost millions of dollars after investing with her firm. Many have testified that they trusted in the size and stability of the firm’s portfolio.

The SEC is seeking up to $12.3 million in disgorgement — based on commissions Bennett received from September 2009 to November 2011, when many of the statements were made — plus a $600,000 fine for Bennett and a $2.8 million fine for the firm for their allegedly false statements.

The SEC originally brought its case in 2015.  The case is In the Matter of Bennett Group Financial Services LLC et al., case number 3-16801, before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investigation Continues

The White Law Group is investigating the liability that the FINRA registered broker-dealers that employed Bennett may have.  According to her FINRA BrokerCheck, Dawn Bennett was registered with WESTERN INTERNATIONAL SECURITIES, INC from October 2009 through December 2015 and with Royal Alliance from February 2006 through October 2009.

Brokerage firms are required to properly supervise all advisors they employ and to ensure that those advisors are complying with applicable FINRA rules and regulations.  When a firm fails to adequately supervise a financial advisor, the firm can be held responsible for any losses in a FINRA arbitration claim.

Recovery of Investment Losses

If you suffered losses investing with Dawn Bennett and would like a free consultation to discuss your litigation options, please call The White Law Group at 888-637-5510.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Franklin, Tennessee.  For more information on the firm and its representation of investors, visit https://whitesecuritieslaw.com.