Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

SEC Busts Texas|Radio Show Cronies

FORT WORTH (CN) - Two cronies who host a Texas radio show defrauded investors of $4.3 million in life settlements, from which they took $515,000 in commissions, the SEC claims in court.

The SEC sued Christopher A. Novinger, 38, and Brady J. Speers, 45, both of Mansfield, and three of their alleged retirement planning firms on Monday in Federal Court.

Novinger and Speers host the weekly "Retirement Experts Radio Show" on Dallas/Fort Worth AM/FM stations. On it, they misrepresented themselves as "(i) licensed financial consultants, (ii) 'The Low Risk, Safe Money Guys,' (iii) retirement experts, and (iv) 'the largest non-risk investment consulting firm in the Southwest,'" the SEC says in the lawsuit.

The SEC describes those claims as pure eyewash. "

"Novinger and Speers possess little to no training relating to securities and noninsurance related financial products, including life settlements," the complaint states. "Even worse, Novinger and Speers have repeatedly been sanctioned by regulatory authorities, including the Oklahoma Department of Securities, the Texas Attorney General, the State of California's Department of Managed Health Care, and the Federal Communications Commission ('FCC'). In fact, the Oklahoma Department of Securities sanctioned Novinger, Speers, and Novers in connection with their efforts to sell life settlements to Oklahoma residents." (Citations omitted.)

Among their bogus claims was that they were "the largest non-risk investment consulting firm in the Southwest," the SEC says. But the SEC says they based this hokum "on geographic territory - not on the number of clients Novers had or on the amount of assets it managed for clients. The sole basis for this claim is that Novinger and Speers drove up to eight hours to visit and solicit investors."

Also untrue were their promises of "guaranteed" annual returns of 7 to 11 percent, "risk free" - "you cannot lose a dollar" - that the money was "federally insured," and "backed by Federal Reserves," the SEC says in the complaint.

It seeks disgorgement, penalties and injunctions.

Mansfield, the men's home base, is a wealthy suburb of Fort Worth. Its median household income of $90,880 in 2012 was 79 percent higher than the statewide median of $50,640, according to city-data.com.

Also named as defendants are the men's companies, NFS Group LLC dba Novers Financial aka Safe Retirement Experts, ICAN Investment Group LLC, and Speers Financial Group.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...