Former Cetera Advisor Pleads Guilty to Securities Fraud in $6M Cherry-Picking Scheme
William Carleton, a former Seattle-based financial advisor who previously worked with Cetera Financial Group, has pleaded guilty to securities fraud for orchestrating an eight-year scheme involving cherry-picked trades. From January 2015 through August 2022, he systematically directed profitable stock transactions into his personal account while assigning losing trades to client accounts. Court documents reveal that approximately 70% of Carleton's own trades resulted in same-day gains compared to just 16% for clients' trades. The U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC investigated the case, with Cetera terminating Carleton’s affiliation in late 2023 due to
Topics: cherry-picking trades financial fraud SEC investigation