Doug Cornelius, in his ComplianceBuilding blog, addressed the iniquity of the SEC's recent disciplinary action against Susan Diamond.  Have a read:

Susan Diamond was CCO of Saddle River Advisors. She's now out of pocket for a $15,000 penalty and is subject to a 9-month suspension from being associated with any investment adviser or other financial services firms. After the suspension, she will be prohibited from acting in the securities industry in certain managerial and compliance capacities.

CHARGES AGAINST DIAMOND.    Diamond, on behalf of Saddle River, prepared, signed, and filed Forms ADV that contained untrue statements. On its face, the order imposes liability for nothing other than answering questions on Form ADV incorrectly.

In Section 7.B.(1)(B) under the heading, “Service Providers” and the subheading “Auditors.”

• Are the private fund’s financial statements subject to an annual audit?    Yes
• Are the financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP?  Yes
• Name of Auditing Firm    SRA Funds’ Tax Preparer
• Are the private fund’s audited financial statements distributed to the private fund’s investors?   Yes

None of these responses were true. Saddle River’s financial statements were not audited, prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, or distributed to investors. The firm identified as SRA’s “auditing firm” had prepared only tax returns and Forms K-1 for the Saddle River Funds and was never engaged by Saddle River to perform an audit.

BOOM! Diamond’s career is over.

All CCOs now need to be worried that getting a question wrong on the Form ADV will end their careers. This is a very bad order.

• The SEC does not lay out any facts in the order that shows Diamond knew the statements were incorrect. The order merely states that Diamond was in a position to answer the questions because she had signatory power on the fund accounts and made accounting entries in the general ledger.
• On its face, the SEC is imposing liability on a CCO solely related to the compliance operations of a CCO. Filing the Form ADV is a core responsibility of the CCO. The order is a terrible statement by the SEC.
• It’s not that Saddle River was free of problems. It’s accused of stealing over $5 million from investors, preying on investors with a claim that it was investing their money in pre-IPO tech companies.
• However, in the order against her, the SEC failed to state that Diamond was involved in any of that wrongdoing at Saddle River.

I am not surprised to see CCO liability when the CCO is involved in the wrongdoing. I am surprised to see a CCO facing liability merely on the facts stated in the order against Diamond.

[Click link to access SEC News Release.]