Jeffrey Pederson is an attorney licensed in Colorado and located in the Denver Tech Center who specializes in cases of Colorado stockbroker and financial advisor malpractice from either fraud or negligence. While many hold themselves out as “Colorado lawyers” handling investment disputes, few are actually located and licensed in Colorado.
We handle cases concerning the fraud and negligence of investment professionals such as portfolio managers, certified financial planners, hedge fund managers and registered investment advisers. His peers and Thomson / Reuters named him “Colorado SuperLawyer” for the field of securities litigation/arbitration in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Call 303-300-5022 for a free consultation.
Claims against licensed investment professionals are routinely resolved through arbitration. The following are Colorado investment professionals who have committed, or are alleged to have committed, regulatory violations in securities sales to Colorado residents.
The companies or stockbrokers with the most recent allegations are listed first. Regulatory violations can serve as the basis of a fraud, negligence or securities law claim by investors in certain circumstances. These are just some of the allegations raised by investors or regulators concerning these individuals or firms (listed chronologically) where Colorado investors may wish to seek legal consultation:
Adam Brunin. Our firm has currently filed suit and represents multiple investors of Mr. Brunin’s. This Loveland / Fort Collins advisor operates the advisory firm Navigation Wealth Management. We have filed suit seeking recovery for Brunin’s inappropriate use algorithm investing and inappropriate concentration of conservative investors into equity portfolios. Mr. Brunin is also being investigated into whether he and his firm inappropriately utilized highly speculative leveraged ETFs. These ETFs used leverage to 2X or 3X the returns and losses based upon the performance of an index.
Jeffrey Perryman. Our firm represents multiple clients of Mr. Perryman’s and we have filed suit concerning the actions of Perryman. This insurance agent and investment advisor is located in Windsor, Colorado. Multiple customers accuse him of unsuitable insurance sales and inappropriate management fees. Formerly of Eagle Strategies, New York Life and NYLife Securities, Perryman’s employers permitted him to resign for taking inappropriate management fees that he did not disclose to his employers. In October of 2024, regulators barred Perryman from the securities industry.
Joshua George Cox of Cambridge Investment in Centennial, Colorado. His employer settled a legal suit against him for $80,000. Subsequently, his employer terminated him for attempted to resolve the matter outside approved channels.
Tom Vukota. Vukota operated Vukota Capital Management and VCM Global Asset Management in Colorado Springs. He settled breach of fiduciary duty and misrepresentation charges of the SEC.
Richard Lee Gorham of RBC Capital Markets in Colorado Springs. He is the subject of a customer complaint concerning the unsuitable sale, aka a violation of Regulation BI, in the sale of mutual funds. RBC received the complaint on August 13, 2025.
Timothy Kevin O’Brien of Ausdal Financial Partners in Colorado Springs. In a complaint Ausdal received on October 10, 2024, the investor alleges that O’Brien recommended unsuitable securities leading to a $220,000 loss. O’Brien denies involvement in the sale.
Luke Vanzo formerly with Mariner and operating out of Colorado Springs and Greenwood Village is alleged to have to engaged in inappropriate annuity switching. Those with information or victimized by the misdeeds of Vanzo are encouraged to call Jeffrey Pederson.
Synapse Brokerage LLC. FINRA expelled this Parker, Colorado brokerage on June 23, 2025. Synapse failed to provide information or keep information current with FINRA.
Easterly ROCMuni High Income Municipal Bond Fund. Also known as RMHIX, multiple Colorado advisors inappropriately recommended this fund, which is a junk bond fund, to those approaching retirement and other conservative or moderate investors. The firms selling this fund include Osaic Wealth and Stifel.
Heather Harris of Parker, Colorado. FINRA suspended her for failure of make payment on a settlement or judgment on May 15, 2025. This stems from FINRA Arbitration Case #24-02322. The arbitration related to a promissory note. She is also known as HEATHER KRISTIN BEAUGUREAU, Heather Kristin Harris, HEATHER K ROENTZ, and Heather Kristin Roentz, Heather Kristin Strnad.
Cooper John Bellet. Rockefeller Financial terminated Mr. Bellet after allegations that he copied and pasted the signatures of investors on documents.
Brent Devon Hablutzel. Rockefeller Financial terminated this Greenwood Village broker over allegations that he made unauthorized trades in customer accounts. Hablutzel previously worked as a broker for Merrill Lynch. One customer has submitted a complaint over the unauthorized transactions.
James W. McGehee. The State of Colorado barred McGehee this month from providing investment advisory services in Colorado. The Wheat Ridge investment adviser is alleged to have purchased options on behalf of elderly investors. Options investing is extremely risky but pays high commissions. McGehee agreed to never be reinstated or to engage in the referral of investors.
Ian Gregory Bell. With the Black Swift Group in Denver and Boulder, the SEC and the United States attorney filed concurrent charges against Bell on December 9, 2024. The authorities accuse Bell of raising millions from investors based upon fabricated account performance statements. Bell then used large sums of the funds he raised personal use and lost the rest of the funds. His victims include professional athletes in Colorado.
Robert Stansky. On September 12, 2023, FINRA barred Stansky from the securities industry. Without admitting or denying the findings, Stansky consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he refused to provide on-the-record testimony, therefore did not contest, allegations by FINRA in connection with its investigation into potential unauthorized transactions by Stansky. At the time, Stanskey was affiliated with MWA Financial in Littleton, Colorado.
Synapse Brokerage, LLC of Parker, Colorado, was suspended by FINRA for failure to provide information. FINRA reported this suspension in June 2025.
Marlin Hershey and Performance Holdings. Hershey and his business partner, Dana Bradley, pleaded guilty to orchestrating a Ponzi-type scheme against Colorado investors through the investment advisory company. A Denver court has awarded more than $11 million in judgments against the Performance Holdings. These entities were all affiliated with the ill-famed real estate developer Gary Dragul.
Stewart Ginn of Independent Financial Group (“IFG”) is alleged by regulators to have grossly churned client accounts. This includes five mostly elderly clients who incurred commissions and losses of over $4.5 million. This is the fifth action against Ginn. Stewart Ginn has had an office in Denver, and in multiple places in California.
Ryan Squillante of Weston, CT waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford to an insider trading offense. According to court documents and statements made in court, working from his home, Squillante was employed as the Head of Equity Trading at Irving Investors, an investment company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. As a result of his position at Irving Investors, Squillante received material non-public information (“MNPI”) about various publicly traded companies. On 15 different occasions between August 2022 and May 2023, Squillante used MNPI for his own benefit by executing transactions in securities of these companies, making a total profit of $220,912.
Bradley Morgan Holts with World Capital Brokerage in Denver is the subject of an SEC action. the SEC alleges that Holts (“Holts” or “Defendant”), while acting as a financial advisor misappropriated $186,382 from three elderly investor customers. Holts falsely told these investors that he would invest their money in securities of mutual funds offered by investment management firm Invesco Ltd. (“Invesco”). Holts instead stole the investors’ money and used the money to pay personal expenses, including for clothing, tanning salons, adult and dating websites, and a divorce lawyer. The three elderly investors have never been repaid. This type of action usually has other victims, though the fraud may be different, such as excessive or unsuitable trading.
Richfield Orion International, Inc. of Castle Rock. Regulators suspended this brokerage firm for failing to provide information or to keep information current. This is a violation of FINRA Rule 9552.
Brent D. Hablutzel is a stockbroker formerly with Merrill Lynch in Greenwood Village. Rockefeller terminated Hablutzel in July 2022. Two sources indicate that the firm took action after a concern related to his management of Hablutzel accounts was brought to Rockefeller managers’ attention. The issue may have traced back to before his move from Merrill.
Scot Barringer, is alleged to have inappropriately sold GWG L Bonds while working for WestPark Capital as a stockbroker in the Denver Metro area.
Geneos Wealth Management, Inc. and its stockbrokers agreed to an Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (a regulatory settlement) concerning its sales of LJM Preservation & Growth Fund. Geneos is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado. The time period of the allegations is 2016 through 2018. The allegations are that Geneos did not train its brokers on the risks of the investment and lacked supervision in the sale of the investment. A regulatory settlement was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $150,000, ordered to pay $250,710.41, plus interest, in restitution to certain customers who purchased an alternative mutual fund LJM.
Gregory Hanshew is a stockbroker who operated in the South Denver Metropolitan area (Littleton, Centennial and Englewood) and worked for Infinity Financial Services since 2014. Regulators accused Hanshew of taking advantage of senior investors, being involved in inappropriate loans, and failing to disclose prior judgments against him. Hanshew failed to adequately dispute the accusation and FINRA, a regulator overseeing securities brokerages, brought action for the surrendered of his license.
Andes Capital Group, LLC: Headquartered in Chicago, Andes failed to supervise and record on its books and records approximately $1.5 million in securities transactions by one of its brokers where the broker worked as the general partner of the target company. This was in contravention of Andes’ own written supervisory procedures, and violated FINRA Rules.
John C. Braddock formerly of Salida and now operating in the Denver area, is facing a multi-month suspension from the securities industry. The accusations are that he offered a private investment in a company that he operates and failed to disclose certain relevant facts concerning the offering. These facts include a recent bankruptcy and incorrect figures concerning the company’s available working capital.
Arthur Obermeier. FINRA suspended Obermeier for 60 days in January 2021and LPL discharged him for making trades without authorization. Obermeier effectuated over $700,000 in trades while a stockbroker for LPL from his office in Boulder without first discussing and obtaining authorization from his clients.
CIM Securities: July 30, 2020 – under a regulatory settlement with this Centennial, Colorado firm, FINRA censured, fined $30,000 and ordered to establish and implement policies, procedures and internal controls reasonably designed to address and remediate its failure to establish and maintain supervisory procedures to prevent its agents from making misrepresentations in securities sales. These misrepresentations concern the sale of private securities and were in violation of federal and state securities laws regulating stockbroker conduct.
Steven D. Rodemer: Rodemer was registered with Stifel as a broker from November 2011 until he was terminated by the firm Jan. 21, 2020, for taking “money from a client account for his personal use without authorization.” He is alleged to have taken over $450,000 from his widowed client to finance his Breckenridge, Colorado vacation home, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
First Western Capital Management: Inappropriate private placement sales to non-institutional investors. The SEC asserts that from October 2010 through July 2017 (the “Relevant Period”), FWCM purchased for advisory clients securities that were sold in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) without having adequate compliance policies and procedures and without providing investment adviser representatives (“IARs”) training and supervision of Rule 144A securities. As a result, over a seven-year period, certain IARs purchased for 81 FWCM advisory clients a gross total of over $666 million worth of securities sold in reliance on Rule 144A when the clients were not qualified institutional buyers in a Rule 144A transaction. FWCM violated Section 206(4) of the Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-7 thereunder by failing to adopt and implement written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations of the Advisers Act and the rules thereunder by the adviser and its supervised persons. In addition, FWCM failed to reasonably supervise its IARs, within the meaning of Section 203(e)(6) of the Advisers Act, with a view to preventing certain of the IARs’ violations of the federal securities laws.
Scott Patrick Kozak, a Cetera stockbroker operating out of Highlands Ranch, Colorado: On March 18, 2020, a regulatory settlement was issued in which Kozak was assessed a deferred fine of $10,000 and suspended from association with any securities brokerage firm in all capacities for two years. Kozak consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that he participated in three sets of private securities transactions without providing prior written notice to his brokerage firm.
The findings stated that Kozak solicited firm investor and other brokers of the firm to invest $1,166,000 in the securities of two companies and also invested his own funds in both of the companies. During an audit, Kozak falsely advised the auditor, and later falsely told his firm’s CCO, that no firm customers had invested in the company that was the subject of the second and third private securities transactions. The findings also stated that Kozak engaged in an outside business activity, without notifying his firm, by forming a company through which he purchased the assets of, and operated, the company that was the subject of the second and third private securities transactions. The prohibition against the sale of unapproved securities is an important one. Brokerage firm approval is necessary to prevent brokers from selling investments that are not legitimate or where the financial are falsified. Kozak had a long history of lawsuits and other misdeeds as a broker.
Jun Zhou, a stockbroker of Littleton, Colorado was barred from the securities industry by FINRA on October 4, 2019. Zhou ran an unauthorized real estate investment program with investments in excess of $16 million. Commissions to Zhou were over $160,000. Zhou’s brokerage was the Leaders Group, Inc. The reason such a penalty is that the lack of oversight is usually either a sign that a fraud is occurring which the broker does not want the brokerage to know of, or the lack of oversight commonly leads to fraud. Despite Zhou’s efforts to conceal the investment program from Leaders, we believe that a reasonable audit would have revealed the program to Leaders and, thus, Leaders has liability for losses.
Tyler James Woodward, on April 9, 2019, a regulatory decision became final in which Woodward was barred from association with any FINRA member, the organization that sets rules and oversees all securities brokerage firms, in all capacities. Woodward failed to contest allegations, and failed to provide documents and information, and to appear for and provide on-the-record testimony requested by FINRA during the course of an investigation concerning serious violations of FINRA rules, including theft. The findings stated that the customer alleged to FINRA that Woodward had persuaded him to transfer more than $117,000 from his brokerage account at Woodward’s employing brokerage firm to a brokerage account at another firm, then to a bank account, and then finally to a company that Woodward created. The investor asserted that Woodward also obtained electronic access to his brokerage account and controlled transactions in that account. The customer alleged that he had made repeated demands to Woodward for the return of his money but that Woodward failed to respond. October 4, 2018, Woodward was named a respondent in a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) complaint alleging to appear and provide sworn testimony requested by FINRA for serious violations of FINRA rules, including theft of investor funds. The complaint alleges that Woodward persuaded the investor to transfer more than $117,000 from his account at Woodward’s member firm to a brokerage account at another firm, and then to a bank account, and then finally to a company that Woodward created. Woodward is no longer licensed in the securities industry.
On January 18, 2019, Daniel Todd Levine formerly of Morgan Stanley and First Financial in Greenwood Village, Colorado entered into a settlement with FINRA regulators. Regulators allege Levine engaged in undisclosed outside business activities, solicited a senior Firm customer to borrow funds for an outside business activity, and executed unauthorized trades, FINRA staff sent Levine a request for documents and information pursuant to FINRA Rule 8210. Levine failed to provide information requested by FINRA staff pursuant to Rule 8210. As a result, Levine violated FINRA Rules 8210 and 2010.
October 4, 2018, CIM Securities, LLC of Centennial, Colorado. CIM failed to supervise and enforce securities regulations as to private securities transactions. Private securities are generally defined as securities that are not traded on national exchanges. Brokerages are required to oversee the sale of such securities due to the likelihood of fraud or theft underlying the investments. CIM failed to adequately supervise at least three of its brokers engaging in private securities transactions in the form of sales of an LLC that pooled investor funds. CIM ultimately entered into a settlement with FINRA, the regulator overseeing securities brokerages, where it was fined and censured.
LPL REIT Violations: The Colorado Division of Securities, part of the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), today signed a final Consent Order with LPL Financial LLP in connection with an investigation of LPL’s failure to implement an adequate supervisory system regarding its sale of non-traded REITS and LPL’s failure to enforce its written procedures regarding the sale of non-traded REITS. Under the terms of the order, LPL agreed to remediate losses for all non-traded REITS sold by the firm from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2013 in violation of prospectus standards, state concentration limits or LPL’s own guidelines. LPL agreed to retain an independent third party to review and verify its executed sales transactions for violations during this period, believed to be more than 2,000 nationwide. LPL will make offers of remediation to affected investors in Colorado upon completion of the third-party review. Additionally, LPL may have responsibility for REITs sold outside the defined time period. The order also requires LPL to pay to Colorado a fine of $40,183.94, representing Colorado’s pro-rata share of a $1.425 million settlement resulting from a multistate investigation of the firm by a task force of state securities regulators formed by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), of which the Colorado Division of Securities is a member. “This investigation is representative of the important investor protection role the Division of Securities serves in safeguarding investors throughout Colorado,” said Securities Commissioner Gerald Rome. The investigation concluded that LPL, through its agents, sold non-traded REITS in excess of the REIT’s prospectus standards, various state concentration limits or LPL’s Alternative Investment Guidelines. The investigation also found that LPL failed to implement a supervisory system that was reasonably designed to achieve compliance with state law.
Geneos Wealth Management of Centennial, Colorado and Draper, Utah submitted an AWC in which the firm was censured and fined $12,500. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to supervise a stockbroker at a branch office who were participating in the execution of securities transactions, namely investments in the form of limited partnership interests, as part of their disclosed outside advisory activities. The findings stated that the financial advisor’s participation included, but was not limited to, meeting with and recommending the underlying securities to customers, providing customers with copies of the private placement memorandum and related paperwork, assisting customers with completing the investment paperwork, accepting the completed paperwork and investment funds, and receiving compensation. The firm also failed to record the transactions on its books and records.
If you have suffered losses you believe to have been due to the negligence, mismanagement, fraud, securities act violation or other misdeeds of any of these or other Colorado financial professionals, Jeffrey Pederson is an attorney licensed in Colorado who has handled hundreds of investor claims, and is willing to conduct a free evaluation of your matter to determine if you have the right of recovery. Please call 303-300-5022 for a free consultation.
Please keep in mind that many regulatory settlements are without admission of wrongdoing. Also, allegations should not be confused with findings of judgment.
Pederson Law has represented individuals across Colorado concerning stockbroker misdeeds including residents of Denver, Boulder, Greenwood Village, Cherry Hills Village, Castle Pines, Centennial, Eagle, Littleton, Englewood, Broomfield, Louisville, Longmont, Superior, Westminster, Vail, Aspen, Basalt, Louisville, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Salida, Gunnison, Steamboat Springs, Ft. Collins, Greeley, Summit County, Woodland Park, and Grand County.
Stockbroker Brokerages include Merrill Lynch, Prudential, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, MetLife, Maloney, Westpark, Geneos, Andes, Oppenheimer, LPL, Halcyon, Next Financial, Rockefeller Financial and many others.
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