📋 Tender Overview
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against El Segundo California-based Red Rock Secured LLC its CEO Sean Kelly and two of its former Senior Account Executives Anthony Spencer and Jeffrey Ward in connection with a fraudulent scheme that involved convincing hundreds of investors to sell securities in their retirement accounts to buy gold and silver coins at prices that included markups far greater than the defendants had promised.According to the SECs complaint since at least 2017 the defendants repeatedly solicited investors through false and misleading statements telling them to protect their retirement savings by selling securities held in their federal employee Thrift Savings Plan accounts 401k plans and Individual Retirement Accounts to invest in gold or silver coins at only a 1 to 5 percent markup. In reality Red Rock charged as much as 130 percent in markups which allowed them to pocket more than 30 million of the more than 50 million they received from investors.As our complaint alleges the defendants used fear and lies to defraud investors out of millions of dollars from their hard-earned retirement savings said Antonia M. Apps Director of the SECs New York Regional Office. We will investigate and charge similar schemes that target investor retirement accounts.The SECs complaint which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California charges Red Rock Kelly Spencer and Ward with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions disgorgement of allegedly ill-gotten gains plus interest and civil penalties as well as an officer and director bar as to Kelly.The SECs investigation was conducted by Michael Ellis and Elzbieta Wraga of the SECs New York Regional Office and was supervised by Hane L. Kim of the Retail Strategy Task Force and Tejal D. Shah of the New York Regional Office. Alex Lefferts of the Enforcement Divisions Office of Investigative and Market Analytics assisted with the investigation. The litigation will be led by Jack Kaufman. This action arises from an investigation generated by the Division of Enforcements Thrift Savings Plan Initiative which focuses on potentially improper practices targeting government employee retirement accounts. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Commodity Futures Trading Commission and state regulators that are members of the North American Securities Administrators Association.
