SEC Sues Another Atlanta Investment Adviser for Fraud

 

The SEC has filed a civil action against Atlanta-based Summit Wealth Management Inc. and its president Angelo A. Alleca charging them with fraud resulting in the loss of over $17 million of investors’ money. The suit seeks an order freezing the defendants’ assets, an order appointing a receiver and an order requiring an accounting of the use of the investors’ assets. There are approximately 200 affected clients. The suit also names as defendants Summit Investment Fund, LP, Asset Class Diversification Fund, LP, and Private Credit Opportunities Fund, LLC, all controlled by Alleca.

Essentially, the SEC alleges that Alleca, age 42, misled clients by telling them that he would invest their money in a fund-of-funds, but instead used their money to speculate in the stock market. After sustaining losses, Alleca tried to conceal them by providing false account statements, and by creating new private funds to raise capital from his defrauded clients in the hope of meeting their redemption requests by using monies from the new funds to repay the earlier losses in a ponzi-like fashion. He then allegedly compounded his fraud by sustaining further losses in the new funds. In addition, some of the capital obtained by the new funds was allegedly misappropriated.

After receiving a tip, the SEC examined Summit Wealth Management and noticed something was amiss at the firm. Thereafter, enforcement attorneys from the Atlanta Regional Office and the SEC’s Asset Management Unit conducted a joint investigation that led to the filing of the SEC’s complaint in federal court in Atlanta on September 18, 2012.

The case is Securities and Exchange Commission v. Angelo A. Alleca, et al., United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, Civil Action File No. 1:12-CV-3261.

Page Perry is an Atlanta-based law firm with over 170 years of collective experience maintaining integrity in the investment markets and protecting investor rights.