SEC Charges World Tree Financial LLC with Cherry-Picking

World Tree Financial LLC – Investment Advisor, Wesley Kyle Perkins – Lafayette, LA

According to a press announcement yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a complaint World Tree Financial, LLC and its majority-owner, Wesley Kyle Perkins, for allegedly operating a cherry-picking scheme that defrauded World Tree clients.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the W.D. Louisiana, alleges that from March 2011 through September 2015, Perkins profited at his clients’ expense by cherry-picking trades.

According to the complaint, approximately 93% of World Tree’s clients’ investments purportedly involved the same securities in the same time frame. Although World Tree was managing between $40 million and $70 million in client assets, the majority of World Tree’s advisory clients were not high net worth individuals, according to the complaint.

Perkins allegedly traded securities in World Tree’s omnibus account and delayed allocating the securities to specific client accounts until he had observed the securities’ performance over the course of the day.

He then purportedly allocated profitable trades to his own accounts, while allocating unprofitable trades to two accounts with substantial assets controlled by another person.

The complaint also alleges that World Tree and Perkins misrepresented to clients that all trades would be allocated fairly and equitably. In addition, it is alleged that World Tree, Perkins and his wife and co-owner, falsely represented that they were not trading in the same securities as World Tree’s clients.

According to Perkin’s FINRA BrokerCheck report, he was a registered advisor with Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments in Lafayette, LA from December 2009 until August 2016.

Recovery of Investment Losses

The White Law Group is investigating potential securities fraud claims involving World Tree Financial and Wesley Kyle Perkins.

Brokerage firms are required to properly supervise their advisors. They must ensure that those advisors are complying with applicable FINRA rules and regulations. If it can be demonstrated that the firm failed to properly supervise Perkins, the firm may be held responsible for investment losses in a FINRA arbitration claim.

If you have invested with World Tree Financial and are concerned about your investments, the securities attorneys at The White Law Group may be able to help you. For a free consultation with a securities attorney, please call our offices 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 Vero Beach, Florida.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://whitesecuritieslaw.com.