SEC charges Allianz Global and three former portfolio managers with massive fraud scheme of hiding risk and losses. Allianz agrees to pay $1 billion to settle and $5 billion in restitution to victims

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today charged Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC (AGI US) and three former senior portfolio managers with a major fraudulent scheme that hid the immense downside risks of a complex options trading strategy they called ā€œStructured Alpha.ā€ AGI US marketed and sold the strategy to approximately 114 institutional investors, including pension funds for teachers, clergy, bus drivers, engineers, and other individuals.  After the COVID-19 market crash of March 2020 exposed the fraudulent scheme, the strategy lost billions of dollars as a result of AGI US and the portfolio managersā€™ misconduct.  AGI US has agreed to pay billions of dollars as part of an integrated, global resolution, including more than $1 billion to settle SEC charges and together with its parent, Allianz SE, over $5 billion in restitution to victims.

The SECā€™s complaint,https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2022/comp-pr2022-84.pdf filed in the federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that Structured Alphaā€™s Lead Portfolio Manager, Gregoire P. Tournant, orchestrated the multi-year scheme to mislead investors who invested approximately $11 billion in Structured Alpha, and paid the defendants over $550 million in fees. It further alleges that, with assistance from Co-Lead Portfolio Manager, Trevor L. Taylor, and Portfolio Manager, Stephen G. Bond-Nelson, Tournant manipulated numerous financial reports and other information provided to investors to conceal the magnitude of Structured Alphaā€™s true risk and the fundsā€™ actual performance. 

Defendants reduced losses under a market crash scenario in one risk report sent to investors from negative 42.1505489755747% to negative 4.1505489755747% — by simply dropping the single digit 2.  In another example, defendants ā€œsmoothedā€ performance data sent to investors by reducing losses on one day from negative 18.2607085709004% to negative 9.2607085709004% — this time by cutting the number 18 in half.    

When the 2020 COVID-related market volatility revealed that AGI US and the defendants had misled investors about the fundā€™s level of risk, the fund suffered catastrophic losses and investors lost billions; the defendants all the while profited from their deception. The complaint further alleges that Tournant, Taylor, and Bond-Nelson then made multiple, ultimately unsuccessful, efforts to conceal their misconduct from the SEC, including false testimony and meetings in vacant construction sites to discuss sending their assets overseas.

“From at least January 2016 through March 2020, the defendants lied about nearly every aspect of a highly complex investment strategy they marketed to institutional investors, including pension funds managing the retirement savings of everyday Americans. While they were able to solicit over $11 billion in investments by the end of 2019 and earn over $550 million in fees as a result of their lies, they lost over $5 billion in investor funds when the market volatility of March 2020 exposed the true risk of their products,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SECā€™s Division of Enforcement. “Following the crash of the Structured Alpha Funds, the defendants continued their pattern of deceit by lying to SEC staff and their fraud would have gone undetected if it werenā€™t for the persistence of SEC lawyers who pieced together the full scope of the massive fraud.”

AGI US admitted that its conduct violated the federal securities laws and agreed to a cease-and-desist order, a censure and payment of $315.2 million in disgorgement, $34 million in prejudgment interest, and a $675 million civil penalty, a portion of which will be distributed to certain investors, with the amount of disgorgement and prejudgment interest deemed satisfied by amounts it paid to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of an integrated, global resolution. In a parallel criminal proceeding, the U.S. Attorneyā€™s Office for the Southern District of New York today announced criminal charges for similar conduct against AGI US, Tournant, Taylor, and Bond-Nelson.  As part of the parallel criminal proceeding, AGI US, Taylor and Bond-Nelson have agreed to guilty pleas. 

The SECā€™s complaint seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement plus interest, and penalties against Tournant, Taylor, and Bond-Nelson. In addition, the complaint seeks an officer and director bar against Tournant. Taylor and Bond-Nelson have agreed to the entry of partial judgments against them in which they consent to injunctive relief with monetary relief to be determined by the court in the future. These settlements are subject to court approval. Taylor and Bond-Nelson also agreed to associational and penny stock bars.

As a consequence of the guilty plea, AGI US is automatically and immediately disqualified from providing advisory services to US registered investment funds for the next ten years, and will exit the business of conducting these fund services.  To avoid disruptions to these funds and for the protection of the fund investors, the SEC will allow a brief transition period solely to transition these services to another investment adviser.  The transition period will be ten weeks for the US mutual funds that AGI US sub-advises and four months for the US closed-end funds that AGI US advises.     

JEFFREY NEWMAN IS A WHISTLEBLOWER ATTORNEY WITH THE FIRM Jeff Newman Law AND HANDLES WHISTLEBLOWER CASES WITH THE SEC AS WELL AS THE FALSE CLAIMS ACT. HE CAN BE REACHED AT jeff@jeffnewmanlaw.com OR AT 617-823-3217.