State Moves to Close La Jolla Investment Firm

State regulators have moved to shut down a La Jolla investment firm whose owner allegedly sold unlicensed securities to investors in California and Arizona before committing suicide on a Carlsbad beach last month.

The state’s Department of Corporations on Wednesday filed a cease-and-desist order against Heritage Financial Asset Management for selling unlicensed certificates of deposit in Australian banks, said William Bickford, an attorney for the department.

Bickford said the department issued the order after interviewing one investor who bought the Australian securities, which were offered at 15% interest. He said the securities were offered to investors here and in Arizona.

The Sacramento Bee reported Thursday that the state’s investigation was initiated after several Sacramento residents contacted the newspaper and said they had lost about $200,000 by investing in the firm, which apparently closed last month. There was no answer at Heritage telephones Thursday.

The newspaper said as much as $2 million in investor funds may be at stake and that some of the money intended for Australian banks was actually deposited in the firm’s own accounts.

The San Diego County district attorney’s fraud division Thursday received four written complaints about Heritage Financial and will begin reviewing the allegations to see if legal action is warranted, said spokeswoman Lucia Edmondson.

Heritage founder Jack B. Backer, 53, committed suicide the morning of Sept. 28. His body was found, with a gun in each hand, off the bluffs north of the Carlsbad State Beach campground, Carlsbad police said.

Lt. Don Lewis said an early-morning walker notified police after finding Backer about 50 feet down the bluffs in the 6100 block of Carlsbad Boulevard. There was a gunshot wound in Backer’s head, but he was still breathing when taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, where he later died, Lewis said.