Barred Texas broker sold GPB fund without a license: SEC

investmentnews.com:

A former longtime broker in Texas who ran a small investment fund that owned units of stuck-in-limbo GPB Capital private placements received a federal court’s approval this week of a $435,000 settlement resolving charges he sold the fund despite not having a securities license at the time.

The broker, Dan Levin, who also in the past had an investment radio show in Dallas, has a history of run-ins with securities regulators and was barred from the securities industry in 2023 over the allegations of selling securities without a license.

Working as an unlicensed broker in the securities industry is a violation of industry rules.

On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted the Securities and Exchange Commission’s request for monetary remedies, $320,000 in disgorgement and penalties of $115,000 against Levin.

Levin had been suspended from the securities industry first in 2013 for six months and again in 2016, also for six months by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. In both instances, Finra charged Levin with using the radio show, called “Investment Talk”, for making unbalanced, misleading statements to clients about certain investments, including life settlement and private placements.

Levin solicited $2.6 million of client money for the fund he controlled, the CRP Fund, which in turn bought GPB Capital private placements. He solicited at least 27 investors from 2017 through 2018, without being registered with the SEC as a broker, according to the SEC.

Levin could not be reached Thursday to comment. He settled the matter last year without admitting to or denying the SEC’s findings. His firm in Dallas was Comprehensive Retirement Planning, and he had been registered in