California resident and former broker Mark Boucher is named in a pending civil action instituted by United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the allegations of his involvement in multiple multi-year fraudulent schemes. He was charged alongside his one-person company, Strategic Wealth Advisor Group Services Inc., according to an investigation by investment loss lawyer Alan Rosca.
Investment loss lawyer Alan Rosca, of Rosca Scarlato LLC law firm is investigating conduct related to the pending civil action instituted against Mark Boucher by the SEC on the allegations of his involvement in multiple multi-year fraudulent schemes. Prior to this action, Mark Boucher was an investment advisor with SCF Investment Advisors, Inc., until he was discharged on 22nd May 2019. According to the disclosures in his Brokercheck Report, Boucher admitted to misappropriating customer funds to pay various credit card companies.
Before joining SCF, Boucher was briefly employed with Northwest Asset Management. Prior to that, Boucher was a registered broker with Raymond James Financial Services Inc. between 4th April, 2000 and 31st March 2016. The relevant period from which the civil action allegations are based cuts across the period within his employment with the three firms and further.
Mark Boucher Is Named In a Pending Civil Action by the SEC
Publicly available information reviewed by the investment loss lawyer Alan Rosca, showed that Mark Boucher had this pending civil action instituted against him by the SEC on 25th August 2020. As reported on his Brokercheck page, the SEC alleged that the action was initiated on the back of a three multi-year fraudulent scheme perpetrated by Mark Boucher and his company, Strategic Wealth Advisor Group Services (SWAG).
According to the Complaint filed by the SEC, Mark Boucher allegedly utilized his company, SWAG to misappropriate over $2 million of clients’ money between the period of December 2010 and July 2020 (which is the relevant period). It is alleged that the misappropriated sum was from the advisory account and bank accounts of three of his investment advisory clients including an elderly client who was a widow in her 60s and another trust of a deceased client. In perpetrating the fraud, it was alleged that former broker Mark Boucher, alone, and subsequently acting through SWAG, made material representations, omissions, forged clients checks, impersonated clients over the phone to gain authorization for wire transfers and lied many times to clients to cover up his fraud.
As reported in the complaint, Mark Boucher, while in the employment of Raymond James Financial Services Inc., allegedly sold the securities of the elderly widow mentioned above and diverted the proceeds to his personal accounts. Mark Boucher allegedly misappropriated about $669,000 from the client through deceptive means such as forgery and even withdrawing funds from the client’s advisory accounts on margin. All of the amounts allegedly withdrawn were reportedly used to pay his credit card debt, clear personal expenses like car insurances, dinners and five star trips among others.
Also included in the complaint is another allegation of fraud against Mark Boucher carried out on another client. According to the complaint, in March 2017 Boucher allegedly sold securities and transferred $60,000 of the proceeds from the client’s advisory account to a California car dealership to allegedly purchase a Camaro for himself. It was alleged that in the process of perpetrating this fraud, Mark Boucher impersonated the client over a telephone call with a representative of a brokerage firm. More interestingly, Mark Boucher allegedly sold the Camaro to the same client, a year and half later for $52,000.
In the face of the multiple fraud allegations against him, ex broker Mark Boucher and his company allegedly took many steps to conceal the fraud. Some of the steps allegedly include making many misrepresentations to the elderly widow as to the full extent of the fraud, misrepresenting to the second client that the misappropriation of funds to fund the purchase of the Camaro was a mistake according to the reports in the Complaint. In a bid to conceal his actions from the SEC, Mark Boucher allegedly created numerous financial accounts but which were allegedly unsuccessful. These actions among others are the allegations levied against him in the pending civil action by the SEC according to the reports in the Complaint.
Boucher Involved in a Customer Dispute Reported as Settled
The investment loss lawyer Alan Rosca also found that Mark Boucher has a customer dispute disclosure on the similar allegation of theft and forgery in January 2020. According to his FINRA brokercheck report, the dispute was settled on 24th January 2020 for $542,444.83 which was the same amount originally requested by the client.
Finally, it is important to note that, as of the date of this article, there has not been a finding of liability as to the complaints or allegations mentioned in this article, unless otherwise indicated. Any reader should also read the original sources hyperlinked in this blog for accuracy, including any BrokerCheck report and/or record of any disciplinary or regulatory action. Those sources are incorporated by reference into the text of this blog, and are the governing materials in case of any inconsistencies or typos in this blog.
Concerned About Your Investments with Mark Boucher? Securities Lawyer Investigating
The Rosca Scarlato LLC law firm represents investors who lose money as a result of investment-related fraud or broker misconduct and is currently investigating the fraud allegations involving former broker Mark Boucher and the pending civil action instituted against him by the SEC. The firm takes most cases of this type on a contingency fee basis and advances the case costs, and only gets paid for their fees and costs out of money recovered for clients. Attorney Alan Rosca, a securities lawyer and adjunct professor of securities regulation, has represented thousands of victimized investors across the country and around the world in cases ranging from arbitrations to class actions.
Investors who believe they lost money as a result of Mark Boucher’s pending civil action instituted against by the SEC on allegations of multiple fraud, may contact attorney Alan Rosca for a free no-obligation evaluation of their recovery options, at 888-998-0530, via email at arosca@rscounsel.law, or through the contact form on this webpage.
