SEC Gets TRO in Ponzi Scheme

The SEC announced that on October 19, 2007, the United Stated District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division issued a Temporary Restraining Order and Asset Freeze against Robert A. Loffredi (Loffredi) and Raymond Financial Group, Inc. (Raymond Financial) temporarily enjoining Loffredi and Raymond Financial from securities law violations and freezing their assets. The SEC alleges that from at least August 2003 to the present, Loffredi, a registered representative and the President of Raymond Financial, raised at least $2.8 million from at least fourteen customers by falsely representing that he would invest their funds in securities, primarily in the form of purported certificates of deposit (CDs). Instead, Loffredi used the customers' funds to pay his personal and business expenses and to make payments to other customers who had invested in fictitious securities.