Authorities revoked the registration of a financial adviser from New Jersey who pocketed about $1.5 million when he steered two clients to invest their money with a CEO friend of his banned from the securities industry.
Carlos Leston convinced the clients — one of whom was in her late 80s — to buy a total of $3.65 million in high-risk securities in a New York lending company, the state Office of the Attorney General said Tuesday.
The two clients liquidated the existing insurance annuities on which they use to cover living expenses and ended up losing a substantial amount of money, an amount that exceeded the benefits of purchasing the securities.
“Instead of putting the financial interests of his clients ahead of his own, as he was required to do, Carlos Leston steered them toward risky, unsuitable investments that benefitted him at the expense of his clients,” Acting Director of the OAG’s Division of Consumer Affairs Carli Faris said in a statement.
Leson was the president of Union City-based Leston Investments Corporation, which he founded in 2012, according to an order outlining the revocation. He coerced the clients to buy the securities between April 2013 and September 2022. One client invested $2.65 million, the other $1 million, documents show.
Leston, who also went by the names Jose Carlos Leston and Jose C. Leston, violated many policies, including the federal “Regulation Best Interest” which mandates broker-dealers to act in the best interest of their customers when making recommendations, officials said.
The Maywood resident was registered as an agent/investment adviser representative for a Massachusetts-based broker-dealer at the time.
“The action announced today makes it clear that we have no tolerance for unscrupulous agents who unlawfully enrich themselves at the expense of the elderly clients who trust them with a lifetime of savings,” Attorney General Matt Platkin said in the news release.
