Inflated Claims Cost Newport Beach Advisor
A Newport Beach investment advisor has been censured and fined $150,000 for overstating his performance results by as much as 15 percentage points a year, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday.
Lester Engebretson, owner of Engebretson Capital Management, failed to disclose that the performance results he released to Nelson Information Inc., an outside investment rating service, were based on hypothetical transactions in a model account, rather than actual client trading, according to the SEC order. The results also failed to deduct for management fees, the SEC said.
Because of the inflated figures, Engebretson ranked as the top performer on Nelson’s list.
Engebretson could not be reach for comment Monday.
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