Cambridge Capital Group Advisors, LLC, its president Phillip Howard, and former registered investment adviser Don Reinhard have been charged with defrauding investors in two proprietary hedge funds operating out of Howard’s law offices.
The Sonn Law Group is investigating allegations surrounding Cambridge Capital Group Advisors, LLC, Phillip Timothy Howard, and Don Warner Reinhard. Under FINRA Rules, brokerage firms are liable for their brokers’ misconduct or negligence and investors may be able to their investment through FINRA arbitration. Contact Sonn Law Group today or call us at 866–827–3202 for a free consultation.
Cambridge Capital Group Advisors, LLC (Cambridge Capital) is a Tallahassee-based investment adviser firm that was formed in March 2015. On August 29, 2019, the SEC filed a complaint against Cambridge Capital, its president Phillip Timothy Howard, and former registered investment adviser Don Warner Reinhard charging them with defrauding former professional football players who had joined a class action against the National Football League for concussion-related brain injuries.
According to the complaint, Howard and Reinhard raised around $4.1 million from 20 investors through the offer and sale of securities. The securities were limited partnership interests in two private investment funds — Cambridge Capital Partners LP (Cambridge Partners) and Cambridge Capital Group Equity Option Opportunities LP (Cambridge Opportunities). Cambridge Capital itself was the general partner and investment manager of both funds.
Howard, who was also a licensed attorney in Florida, represented some of the players in the class action lawsuit regarding brain injuries. Although Howard acknowledged that the players’ “brain function is not there, their body has been beat up from the NFL, they don’t have employment capacity, they don’t have credit, and they don’t have capital anymore,” he still solicited these players to invest in the funds. More than half of the players who invested in the funds used their retirement accounts to do so.
Howard and Reinhard allegedly misrepresented the investment focus of the Funds’, how investor money would be used, and Reinhard’s background and experience in the securities industry. While they advertised that the funds would be invested in a variety of instruments, in reality the money invested was used almost exclusively in settlement advance loans made to more than 70 of Howard’s NFL class-action clients. They also misappropriated about $973,000 to pay themselves fees and cover Howard’s residential mortgage payments.
The Cambridge securities offering continued until early February when Reinhard was arrested for child abuse. In addition to this conviction, Reinhard was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison in 2009 after pleading guilty to mortgage, tax, and bankruptcy-related fraud charges. He was released in 2015.
The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest, and financial penalties.
Jeffrey R. Sonn is an experienced investor losses attorney. If you suffered losses because a financial professional recommended that you invest in unsuitable products, Mr. Sonn will protect your rights and interests. Please do not hesitate to contact the Sonn Law Group today for a free review of your claim.
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