The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against former registered representative Mark Hopkins, a Michigan resident, for misappropriating at least $1.15 million from at least five customers of the brokerage firm with which he was associated.

According to the SEC's complaint, Hopkins represented to certain customers that he would invest their funds in an investment program at a local credit union that would be relatively short-term and would return a six or seven percent profit. The complaint alleges that five of Hopkins's customers transferred to Hopkins a total of roughly $1.15 million for investment in the program. According to the complaint, however, the investment program Hopkins described never existed, and rather than investing the customer funds, Hopkins deposited them into an account he controlled at the credit union and misappropriated them. As alleged, Hopkins provided the customers falsified account statements to conceal his fraud.

The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges that Hopkins violated the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The SEC seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and prejudgment interest, and civil money penalties.

The SEC's investigation, which is continuing, is being conducted by Sarah Hancur and Jean Javorski and supervised by C.J. Kerstetter. The SEC's litigation will be led by John Birkenheier.