Charlotte Investment Advisor Richard W. Davis Jr. Charged with Defrauding Investors

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday charged Richard W. Davis Jr., a Charlotte, North Carolina investment advisor with defrauding investors. Davis was accused of secretly moving portions of real estate investments into transactions with companies he owned and operated. This is a breach of fiduciary duty and it is against securities rules and regulations to fail to disclose self-dealing. He also made false or misleading statements to investors, failed to disclose their losses and improperly received at least $1.5 million from bank accounts that contained investor funds when he was owed less than $150,000 in management fees. The U.S. Secret Service had been investigating Davis for possible investment fraud in August. Davis then told investors that their money was growing while his companies were not even repaying the loans. He was barred from any further sale of securities in a pooled investment vehicle as well as from future violations of securities laws. According to the SEC, from January 2008 until February 2015, Davis raised at least $11.5 million from about 85 investors through the unregistered sale of securities in two funds: DCG Real Assets and DCG Commercial Fund I. Davis then transferred $7.7 million $9.8 million he raised from his own entities.