The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former Rockford, Illinois-area investment adviser Naseem Mohammed Salamah for allegedly defrauding his advisory clients out of nearly $1 million.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Salamah stole more than $950,000 from at least three elderly advisory clients. As alleged, Salamah chose these three clients because he did not think they would pay close attention to their brokerage account statements. The complaint alleges that Salamah falsely represented to his clients that he was moving their funds to diversify their securities holdings, but instead used fraudulently altered authorization forms to transfer their funds to a bank account that he controlled. According to the complaint, Salamah used the misappropriated money for his own personal expenses, including vacations, luxury cars, and private school tuition.

The SEC's complaint charges Salamah with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.  Salamah has consented to an injunction and to have the court consider the SEC's claims for disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties at a later date. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois filed criminal charges against Salamah on September 28, 2021 in a parallel action.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Dee O'Hair and Nick Magina and supervised by Amy Flaherty Hartman of the Chicago Regional Office.  The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Western Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.