U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 21872 / March 3, 2011
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Steven T. Kobayashi, Civil Action No. CV-11-00981 EDL
SEC CHARGES FORMER UBS FINANCIAL ADVISER WITH DEFRAUDING LIFE SETTLEMENT FUND INVESTORS
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former financial adviser at UBS Financial Services LLC with misappropriating $3.3 million in a scheme that included bilking investors in a private investment fund he established.
The SEC alleges that Steven T. Kobayashi, who worked in UBS's Walnut Creek, Calif., office, created a pooled investment fund to invest in life insurance policies. But he wound up stealing much of the money to support his extravagant lifestyle. Kobayashi concealed his fraud by liquidating his customers' securities and funneling the money back to the fund and its investors.
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California today filed criminal charges against Kobayashi arising from some of the same alleged misconduct.
According to the SEC complaint filed today in federal district court in Oakland, Kobayashi established Life Settlement Partners LLC (LSP), a fund that invested in life settlement policies. He raised several million dollars from his UBS customers for the fund. Beginning in early 2006, Kobayashi used LSP's bank accounts as his personal piggy bank, spending at least $1.4 million in investor funds on expensive cars, prostitutes, and large gambling debts.
The SEC alleges that in an attempt to repay LSP and its investors before they discovered his theft, Kobayashi induced several of his other UBS customers to liquidate securities in their UBS accounts and transfer the proceeds of those sales to entities that he controlled. In this manner, he stole an additional $1.9 million from these investors.
Kobayashi, who lives in Livermore, Calif., agreed to settle the SEC's charges against him without admitting or denying the allegations. He agreed to a permanent injunction enjoining him from further violations of Sections 10(b) and 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and consented to the institution of public administrative proceedings against him in which he will be permanently barred from associating with entities in the securities industry. The amount of ill-gotten gains and monetary penalties that Kobayashi will be required to pay will be determined by the court at a later date.