Advanced Sales Corp. Released From SEC Civil Suit
May 12, 2008
Advanced Sales Corp. and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached a proposed settlement on May 6 to dismiss all claims against the company and lift a freeze on one of its bank accounts, Advanced Sales said in a release.
The Chicago-area firm, which provides analytic and comparative data about variable annuity contracts to broker/dealers and others, was named as a relief defendant last October in a federal civil suit filed against financial advisor Robert A. Loffredi, then-husband of Advanced Sales’ president, Karen L. Loffredi, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
The government charged Robert Loffredi and his firm, Raymond Financial Group, Inc., with violating federal securities laws by misappropriating clients’ assets. Advanced Sales was named a relief defendant because some of those assets “may have been eventually used for the benefit of Advanced Sales Corp.”
“The SEC action made no allegations against Advanced Sales or its President, Karen Loffredi, of any personal wrongdoing but merely suggested that they may have, without knowledge of the improper source of the funds, received some benefit from the assets improperly obtained by either Robert Loffredi or Raymond Financial Group Inc.,” the release said.
The settlement does not require Advanced Sales to pay a fine or to disgorge any assets.
On October 19, 2007, the SEC filed a civil action against Robert Loffredi and his firm, Raymond Financial Group. The suit charged that from August 2003 to late 2007 Loffredi sold $2.8 million worth of fictitious securities to 14 clients and, while sending them false account statements and IRS Forms 1099, used the money for himself or to pay other clients who had purchased fictitious securities from him.
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