SEC sues firm, execs for alleged fraud

“The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday sued Enterprise Trust Co., its president, John Lohmeier, and its vice president, Rebecca Townsend, in federal court in Chicago. The SEC alleges that the defendants fraudulently induced hundreds of customers of registered broker-dealer Advisory Financial to transfer custody of $49 million in mutual funds to Enterprise.”

“Without customer approval Enterprise, which is chartered in Nevada but does business out of Oak Brook, placed the mutual funds into margin and other accounts where the securities served as collateral for leveraged trading that was intended to benefit Enterprise and not AF customers, the SEC's lawsuit claimed.”

“'Work with SEC': Townsend referred questions to Howrey LLP lawyer Stephen Libowsky (CH). ‘We've been working with the SEC and will continue to work with the SEC to try to resolve the issues on the table,’ he said.”