New York (HedgeCo.net) – The SEC has charged San Francisco-area hedge fund adviser Kurt Hovan with fraud for lying to clients about brokerage commission rebates and producing phony documents to cover up the fraud during an SEC examination.

“The SEC’s ability to review the records of investment professionals is a cornerstone of our investor protection mission,” said Marc Fagel, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “We take a particularly dim view of those who compound their fraud on investors by providing false information to our examiners.”

The SEC alleges that more than $178,000 in “soft dollars” were misappropriated, and that the adviser falsely claimed to be using to pay for legitimate investment research on his clients’ behalf. In reality, Hovan was secretly funneling the money for such undisclosed uses as office rent, computer hardware, and his brother’s salary. When SEC examination staff asked Hovan to provide documentation to back up his claims, he created phony research reports. Hovan then provided these phony documents to SEC examiners.

The SEC also charged his wife Lisa Hovan and his brother Edward Hovan for their roles in the fraudulent scheme at hedge fund Hovan Capital Management.

Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
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