The Eliv Group, LLC and Scott Valente Charged by the SEC – Goodman & Nekvasil P.A. May Recover Investor Losses
Securities and Exchange Commission Charges The Eliv Group, LLC and Scott Valente
The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed an emergency enforcement action to halt an ongoing fraud by an investment adviser based in Albany, N.Y., who is charged with lying to clients about the success of their investments while stealing their money for his personal use.
The SEC alleges that Scott Valente and his firm The ELIV Group LLC have fraudulently raised more than $8.8 million from approximately 80 clients by falsely claiming they achieve consistent and outsized positive returns among other misrepresentations about the safety of the investments. According to the SEC, ELIV Group has in fact earned no positive results at all, instead sustaining consistent investment losses for the past three years. According to the SEC, meanwhile, Scott Valente has been making substantial cash withdrawals of client funds and spending their money on his home improvements and mortgage payments as well as jewelry and a vacation condominium. According to the SEC, Scott Valente’s unsuccessful trading strategies and misappropriations have severely diluted the amount of client funds on hand at ELIV Group, and the SEC is seeking an asset freeze to halt the fraud as Scott Valente continues to solicit new clients with his false claims. According to the SEC, ELIV Group has offices in Albany and Warwick, N.Y.
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Valente misleadingly told his clients that he has a 30-year record of investing experience “dedicated to the highest standards of service” and that he founded ELIV Group, LLC after leaving the “corporate financial industry” upon concluding there “had to be a better way for clients to achieve financial independence.” According to the SEC, what he failed to disclose was that he twice filed for bankruptcy and started ELIV Group, LLC only after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) permanently expelled him from the broker-dealer industry in 2009 for engaging in serial misconduct against numerous customers.
The SEC alleges that Valente and ELIV Group, LLC attracted clients by falsely assuring them that the principal amount of their investments was fully liquid and “guaranteed” because it was backed by a large money market fund. According to the SEC, client funds were in fact never guaranteed or backed by any money market funds, and the majority of ELIV Group’s investments were in highly illiquid investments in privately-held companies. According to the SEC, Valente and ELIV Group also assured clients that the firm’s books and records were audited independently. According to the SEC, however, ELIV Group never had an auditor, and the firm sent clients monthly investment reports in which they actually inflated the monthly returns, assets under management, and client account values.
The Eliv Group, LLC Investors May Recover their Losses with Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A.
If you invested in The Eliv Group, LLC, Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A. may help you. Goodman & Nekvasil, P.A., a Clearwater, Florida, law firm with a national practice representing victimized investors, has recovered more than $180 million dollars on behalf of victimized investors.
All our cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis by Kalju Nekvasil, Esq., formerly regional counsel with the NASD, now known as FINRA. Kalju Nekvasil, Esq. has practiced in this area of the law for more than 35 years.
There is no charge for an evaluation of your case. Further, we handle our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless we recover money for you, we charge no attorney’s fee. Unless you recover any money, you pay us nothing, not even the costs and expenses which the firm will advance on your behalf.
If you incurred investment losses in The Eliv Group, LLC and would like your case evaluated by a securities attorney (again, there is no charge for an evaluation and all cases are handled on a purely contingency fee basis), please contact us.