Post by niseag on May 3, 2014 3:17:21 GMT 4
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said American Pension Services Inc and its founder and CEO Curtis DeYoung lost more than $22 million of investor funds on high-risk investments.
“This misconduct jeopardized retirement security for thousands of APS customers,” said Karen Martinez, director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office.
According to the SEC, DeYoung’s schemes targeted customers with retirement accounts holding assets typically not available through traditional 401(k) retirement plans or through other individual retirement accounts (IRA) custodians.
The SEC also alleged that investments in bankrupt ventures, including an office building in Wichita, Kankas, caused APS customers to lose more money.
APS concealed those losses and issued account statements that inflated the value of customer holdings, allowing APS to levy fees based on the full value of the holdings even when they were worthless.
Self-directed IRAs are an area of focus for the SEC.
see: www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1370541684897#.U2QnZYY57BM