The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a money manager and her firm Monday with pretending she had a billion-dollar client in order to lure legitimate investors.
In its civil complaint filed in a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, the SEC alleged that investment adviser Leila Jenkins and her firm, Locke Capital Management, repeatedly lied about a bogus billion-dollar client and gave SEC staff members fake account statements to back up the claims.
According to the SEC, Jenkins claimed the confidential client accounts were based in Switzerland. From at least 2003 to 2009, she repeated these claims in brochures, SEC filings and other materials, the agency said. Though in 2006 she did take on real clients, the SEC said, none of these accounts amounted to anywhere near the billion-plus dollars she claimed.
The SEC said it is seeking money penalties, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and an injunction against future violations.
