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After SEC Fraud Charge, FINRA Bars Robert Tweed for Making False Statements to Obtain $1.6 Million in Athenian Fund LP

Attorney Advising Disclaimer

With a pending SEC fraud charge to his name, FINRA barred Robert Russel "Rusty" Tweed of Glendale, California from the securities industry, finding he negligently made false and misleading statements to customers to solicit investments in his Athenian Fund LP, a hedge fund Tweed created and controlled. The decision found that Tweed obtained $1.6 million from at least 23 investors through the use of these statements—including a false and misleading private placement memorandum (PPM)—which misled investors about fees and costs associated with the fund, as well as information about who controlled the fund and its trading.

The SEC complaint additionally charged Tweed (CRD #2339324) and his firm, Tweed Financial Services, with failing to disclose and seek approval for two investments—Quantitative Analytics Master Fund (QAMF) and Teamwork Retail—which resulted in customers losing at least $800,000, and attempting to cover up the misconduct by fabricating or falsifying account statements that improperly claimed positive or flat income.

Accordingly, Tweed's allegedly fabricated or falsified financial statements sent to customers may have prevented them from learning of their losses until well after these monies had vanished.

The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates is investigating claims against Robert Russel "Rusty" Tweed, Athenian Fund, and Tweed Financial Services, including allegations that Tweed sold unsuitable oil or unprofitable oil and gas private placements and real estate investment trusts (REITs), some of which have gone bust, to elderly and retired clients.

OHO Decision #2015046631101

Formerly associated with Concorde Investment Services and Cabot Lodge Securities (both San Marino, CA), FINRA's complaint filed in 2017 alleged that Tweed misrepresented and failed to disclose material facts to investors in order to induce them to invest $1.6 million in Tweed's Athenian Fund, and that his materially misleading information and concealment prevented investors from discovering that a fund associate of Tweed's had a history of bank fraud and fraudulent trading, which purportedly persisted as Tweed brought the associate onto the Athenian money management team.

Shortly thereafter, the complaint stated, this associate—former Cedar Hills, Utah mayor Eric Richardson, whom the Daily Herald once referred to as a convicted Ponzi co-schemer—transferred $650,000 out of the Athenian Fund to purportedly invest in Ghana-sourced gold dust through an entity called Luminary Investment Services LLC, a $650,000 loss never repaid nor recovered by the Fund's investors.

According to the SEC, Tweed also moved investors' money out of the Athenian Fund and into the Quantitative Analytics Master Fund (QAMF) of Utah, controlled by Richardson. The SEC also named Teamwork Retail, LLC of Clearwater Florida as a business Tweed purportedly steered the transferred funds toward, subsequently receiving $100,000 from Teamwork Retail for "consulting services."

Teamwork Retail filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter, thus costing Tweed and his Athenian Fund investors at least $200,000, in addition to $776,040 that QAMF never returned to Athenian, placing total investor losses in excess of $1 million.

In conclusion, the extended hearing panel wrote that Tweed "is unfit to work in the securities industry," finding that he willfully omitted and misrepresented many material facts for a considerable amount of time. In crafting its decision, the panel also referred to a need to deter Tweed and others who may be similarly situated from engaging in such "egregious" misconduct.

As for Tweed, his BrokerCheck report lists a series of customer disputes, including several pending complaints alleging misrepresentation and poor performance.

If you have invested with Robert Russel Rusty Tweed or with any broker, financial adviser, or firm whose misleading statements, omissions of material facts, misrepresentations, or false and fabricated documents have induced an investment that has proven harmful to your interests, or allowed such a harmful activity to continue by concealing its losses, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.

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