The SEC has fined and suspended a baggage handler at a major airline who provided unauthorized investment services to colleagues from 2003 to 2017 while using the business name “Bored at Work.”
Marcos Tamayo’s coworkers gave him online access to their airline retirement accounts, which he used to select investments and make trades for a $300 annual fee.
According to the SEC’s enforcement order, “Tamayo’s business started to grow rapidly at the end of 2015 after Facebook posts in which he claimed falsely to have nearly one million dollars in his own retirement account.”
By the end of December 2016, Tamayo had more than $110 million in client retirement assets under management.
When Nevada ordered Tamayo to suspend his unlicensed investment advisory business in August 2017, he had more than 900 clients with accounts worth more than $172 million.
“In addition to failing to register with the Commission as an investment adviser in violation of Section 203(a) of the Advisers Act, Tamayo made material misrepresentations to his clients by repeatedly and significantly overstating the value of his own retirement account and his assets under management.”
Facebook fall
In early 2015, Tamayo was added to a Facebook group called “Selfie Showdown” with about 2,000 airline employee members.
Instead of posting a picture of himself, Tamayo posted a picture of a client’s retirement account statement with a balance of about $825,000. Tamayo cropped the picture so that the individual’s name was not shown, and airline employees assumed the account was his.
However, Tamayo’s own retirement account was nowhere near $825,000. When Tamayo left the airline in 2017, he liquidated his retirement account—it was worth only $159,508.
As part of his offer to settle, Tamayo must pay disgorgement of $144,485 and prejudgment interest of $9,803 to the SEC, as well as a civil penalty of $50,000.
Tamayo is also suspended from association or employment with any investment advisor, broker, dealer, municipal securities dealer, municipal advisor, transfer agent, or nationally recognized statistical rating organization for a period of 12 months.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
