Alex Padalka
Aug 8, 2022
The SEC had accused Shawn Good for spending money on luxury cars, credit card bills and more.
A former Morgan Stanley financial advisor in North Carolina accused of fleecing clients out of millions of dollars has been barred from selling securities by a federal judge. In April, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Shawn Good of Wilmington, North Carolina, charging him with involving his clients at Morgan Stanley in a $4.8 million Ponzi scheme that resulted in more than $2 million of investor losses.
According to the regulator, between the end of 2012 and at least February 2022, Good convinced clients to invest in purportedly low-risk real-estate development investments tax-free government bonds but was in fact using new investors’ money to pay older investors.
Good was registered at Morgan Stanley from December 2012 until March 10, 2022, according to BrokerCheck.
Good spent investors’ money to pay for his Tesla and Alfa Romeo Stelvio, cover more than $800,000 in personal credit card bills and to send $110,000 via the payment platform Venmo, with payments accompanied by messages including “because you're sexy” and “‘Hotel for Destiny,” the SEC stated.
In May, Good, responding to the SEC’s lawsuit through his lawyer, Joseph Zeszotarski, invoked the Fifth Amendment 68 times, the Triangle Business Journal writes. Last month, meanwhile, a federal judge in North Carolina permanently barred Good from selling securities, granting the SEC’s request for a permanent injunction and ordering Good to return the allegedly ill-gotten gains, with interest, according to the publicatio.
Moreover, Good is not allowed to state “that he did not violate the federal securities laws as alleged in the complaint,” according to the Business Journal.
Zeszotarski didn’t return the publication’s request for comment.
Good had already consented to an injunction and an asset freeze ordered in April without admitting or denying the allegations in court documents, the Business Journal writes.
Do you have a news tip you’d like to share with FA-IQ? Email us at editorial@financialadvisoriq.com.