Cetera affiliates fined $1M each over conflicts of interest

Cetera Financial

A pair of investment advisers owned by Cetera Financial Group must pay a total of more than $8.6 million as part of a final judgment obtained by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging the defrauding of Cetera advisory clients.

Cetera Advisors and Cetera Advisor Networks were each assessed penalties of $1 million in addition to combining to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of approximately $6.6 million to resolve SEC claims of violating the Investment Advisers Act raised in an October 2019 complaint. The case had originally been filed against Cetera Advisors in August 2019 before Cetera Advisor Networks was added as a defendant two months later.

Final judgment for the case filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado was obtained Oct. 13, though the SEC announced the result in a litigation release Monday.

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