Update: Mark Holt and Geneos Wealth Management

Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) barred Mark Holt, a former broker with Geneos Wealth Management Inc., who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2014 and ordered to pay $2.9 million in restitution to clients. Mr. Holt allegedly defrauded his clients by obtaining their property and money via email across state lines. This is known as federal wire fraud. Mr. Holt told clients that he would invest their funds in bond and mutual funds from February 2007 until November 2013. He then “misappropriated their funds by depositing client checks into a bank account he controlled and used these funds to pay for personal and business expenses. In furtherance of his scheme, Holt lulled his clients into believing that the had purchased various investments for them by sending fraudulent Morningstar client summaries and creating online client accounts using Blueleaf, a web-based portal, that displayed fraudulent account balances. He also made monthly payments to his clients that were intended to appear as interest or annuity payments,” according to the filing. He also “knowingly caused an email communication to be transmitted in interstate commerce via servers in Texas to a client in Minnesota that would give the client access to false account statements.” He is currently incarcerated in Wisconsin. Please call us today if you suffered losses because of Mr. Holt. We may be able to bring a claim against Geneos Wealth Management on a contingency fee basis.