Recovery of Investment Losses with Dawn Bennett

Financial Advisor Dawn Bennett  first came in to the limelight in September 2015 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged her with fraud for claims made on her radio show and Facebook page, alleging that she was “grossly inflating” the assets she managed with her company Bennett Group Financial Services.

Since then, The White Law Group has represented several Dawn Bennett clients and continues to investigate the liability that her FINRA registered employer may have for failure to properly supervise her.

SEC allegations against Dawn Bennett include the following:

• Dawn Bennett made material misstatements and omissions regarding assets that were purportedly “managed” for investors and regarding investment returns for the purpose of retaining existing customers and attracting new customers. Then, during the investigation of this matter, Bennett and Bennett Group made addition misstatements in an effort to obstruct the investigation and to “cover up” their prior fraud.
• Bennett and Bennett Group grossly overstated the amount of assets they “managed” by at least $1.5 billion, in a calculated effort to inflate their profile and prestige. They also made the misstatements on a Washington, D.C. radio program hosted by Bennett, and in a variety of other advertisements and communications with existing and prospective customers and clients.
• The SEC Alleges: Bennett and Bennett Group also made material misstatements and omissions during the radio show regarding Bennett Group’s investment returns and performance. Bennett frequently touted her firm’s highly profitable investment returns and claimed that those returns placed Bennett Group in the “top 1%” of firms worldwide. Bennett failed to disclose that the purported “returns” were simply those of a “model portfolio” and did not reflect actual customer returns.
• In addition to the material misstatements and omissions about these matters, Dawn Bennett and the Bennett Group failed to adopt and to implement adequate written policies and procedures related to the calculation and advertisement of assets managed and of investment returns.
• Respondents falsely asserted that they gave advice regarding short-term cash management to three corporate clients regarding over $1.5 billion in corporate assets. In reality, they never provided the advice, and these were simply lies meant to deceive the Division of Enforcement.

According to her FINRA BrokerCheck, Dawn Bennett was registered with Western International Securities from October 2009 through December 2015 and with Royal Alliance from February 2006 through October 2009. She has twelve customer disputes listed on her Broker Report since 2013.

Failure to supervise Dawn Bennett?

The White Law Group represents several of Dawn Bennett clients and continues to investigate the liability that her FINRA registered employer, Western International Securities, may have for failure to properly supervise her.

Those claims generally allege breach of fiduciary duty, negligent supervision, and unsuitability and relate to high-risk bets on gold and gold investments.

“We believe there are many more victims of Dawn Bennett who just don’t realize they have recourse, or may be unaware of any wrongdoing,” said D. Daxton White, managing partner of The White Law Group

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.  If these allegations can be proven and if it can be demonstrated that Bennett’s former employer failed to properly supervise her, her employer may be held responsible for the losses in a FINRA arbitration claim.

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 White Law Group and its representation of investors in FINRA arbitration claims, visit http://whitesecuritieslaw.com.  For a free consultation with a securities attorney, please call the firm at 888-637-5510.