According to reports, Lee Weiss has been barred from the brokerage and investment advisory industry for his fraudulent scheme involving a French company that claimed it could reduce the harmful effects of tobacco smoking.

Mr. Weiss, who resides in Newton, Mass, and his firm Family Endowment Partners LLC will apparently also pay about $8.4 million in relief to investors he duped.

The SEC reportedly alleged that from 2010 to 2012 Mr. Weiss and his registered investment advisory firm fraudulently advised clients and hedge funds to invest more than $40 million in securities issued by companies owned by Biosyntec, which claimed to have developed a cigarette filter that reduced the risk of lung cancer. Mr. Weiss purportedly held shares in the French company, which paid him more than $600,000 shortly after the investments were made.

In settling the SEC’s allegations, Mr. Weiss neither admitted nor denied its findings

Mr. Weiss is the owner of Newton, Mass.-based registered investment advisory firm Family Endowment Partners.

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