SEC Whacks N.J. Investment Adviser

(CN) - The SEC today charged a Branchburg, N.J.-based investment adviser and three of her firms with defrauding investors, many of them elderly, of more than $11 in phony promissory notes. Sandra Venetis promised 6 to 11 percent tax-free returns but "looted" the money pay for business debts, international travel, gambling, and home mortgages and property taxes, the SEC said.

Venetis also funneled cash to her relatives, the SEC said in announcing the settled complaint. Venetis and her companies - Systematic Financial Associates, Systematic Financial Services LLC, and Systematic Financial Services - agreed to disgorge ill-gotten gains, pay penalties, have their assets frozen and submit to an audit.

Venetis, 59, of Whitehouse Station, N.J., also agreed to have her companies' registration revoked and she will be barred from working for investment advisers, brokers or dealers, the SEC said.

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