U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 25974 / April 11, 2024
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Justin Robert King, et al., No. 8:20-cv-02398 JVS-DFM (C.D. Cal., filed Dec. 21, 2020)
SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Justin Robert King for an Offering Fraud
On March 27, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a final judgment against Justin Robert King, an unregistered investment adviser the SEC charged with carrying out an offering fraud.
The SEC’s complaint alleged that beginning in June 2019 King raised approximately $7.4 million from investors. The complaint further alleged that King was offering interests in an entity named Elevate Investment Fund even though no such fund existed. As alleged in the complaint, all investor money was held in brokerage and bank accounts in the name of King, his wife, and/or his company, Elevate Investments, LLC (“Elevate”). The complaint further alleged that in offering and selling securities of the Fund, King made false and misleading statements on Elevate’s publicly-accessible website and in investor account statements stating that King’s trading had historically resulted in profits for his clients, including a 61% return for all of his clients’ accounts from June 2019 through June 2020, when in truth King’s trading resulted in substantial losses year after year. Elevate’s website also listed certain “Trusted Providers,” including broker-dealers with whom King and Elevate had no current dealings.
King consented to a final judgment permanently enjoining him from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 206(4) of the Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 206(4)-8 thereunder.
The final judgment against King concludes the litigation. Elevate, which is under receivership, had previously consented to entry of a final judgment for its role in the scheme, and King’s wife, a relief defendant, consented to a judgment requiring her to repay moneys that were transferred to her.
The SEC's litigation was led by Lynn M. Dean and supervised by Douglas M. Miller, and the investigation was conducted by staff in the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office and supervised by Robert Conrrad.