On April 18, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action and charged Wilmington, North Carolina-based broker and investment adviser Shawn Good with defrauding clients and misappropriating millions of dollars of investor funds.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Good raised at least $4.8 million from five of his clients at Morgan Stanley-including retirees and a single mother of young children-to make supposedly low-risk investments in tax-free bonds and land-development projects. Rather than invest the money, however, the complaint alleges that Good used the funds to repay other victims and to pay for his own personal expenses, including luxury cars, international travel, and approximately $800,000 in credit card bills.

The complaint charges Good 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. The SEC seeks preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, an asset freeze, an accounting, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.

The SEC's ongoing investigation is being conducted by John Westrick, Josh Hess, and Tiffany Kunkle, and supervised by Matthew McNamara and Justin Jeffries. The SEC's litigation will be led by Edward Sullivan.