Anthony Pellegrino is the owner of Goldstone Financial Group, a financial planning firm fined by the SEC in March 2022 for its shady practices.
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According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the financial advisory firm had taken part in ‘unregistered transactions’ with one of their fraudulent clients and failed to disclose the fees they earned.
Anthony Pellegrino used to run Goldstone Financial Group with its co-founder Michael Pellegrino. However, the SEC barred Michael while only censuring and finning Anthony for their shady deals.
The following review is for consumers and investors interested in the services of Goldstone Financial Group so they can make a well-informed decision:
Fines, Censures and Bars – SEC’s Regulatory Action against Michael and Anthony Pellegrino
According to the SEC, Michael and Anthony Pellegrino of Goldstone Financial Group had received around $1.6 million in fees from 1 Global. They received this payment for selling their securities.
Also, their rate of charging this fee was 4.3%, a rate significantly higher than the industry standard of 1%.
Michael and Anthony Pellegrino as well as Goldstone settled this matter with the SEC without admitting or denying their findings.
Furthermore, the SEC had ordered Goldstone Financial Group to pay a $70,000 penalty and hire an independent compliance advisor.
The Securities and Exchange Commission had investigated a $283 million loan fraud which occurred in 2018. This multi-million fraudulent deal happened through a vast network of unregistered brokers and financial advisors.
1 Global Capital was one of those unregulated promoters. It offered small business loans to different consumers and enterprises as direct merchant cash advances. Also, their offered loans were in the form of unsecured, short-team commercial financing.
Furthermore, the SEC shared that 1 Global had marketed its unregulated investments as a safe and secure alternative to the stock market. Moreover, they made the baseless claim that investing in their cash advance business would deliver high single-digit or low double-digit annual returns.
The SEC highlighted that 1 Global had misrepresented how it was using investor money. They siphoned off the investor funds to fund the luxury lifestyle of their chairman, Carl Ruderman.
Also, the illegal operation stopped when the company filed for bankruptcy in July 2018.
The SEC’s charges highlight that Michael and Anthony Pellegrino had repeated the misrepresentational claims of 1 Global to prospective investors. However, it’s worth pointing out that Anthony claims to be unaware of the fraudulent nature of 1 Global and its offerings.
Alarming Disclosures Against Anthony Pellegrino:
The case I mentioned above resulted in a Cease and Desist order by the SEC for Anthony Pellegrino along with a fine of $30,000.
It is now marked as a Disclosure on the BrokerCheck profile of this financial advisor.
While it is the most recent disclosure in Anthony’s profile, it’s not the only time the leader of Goldstone Financial Group has faced regulatory action.
His profile has another disclosure dating back to 2019.
It was initiated by the Idaho Department of Finance. Apparently, Anthony Pellegrino had recommended the purchase of an unregistered security to his client/s.
The disclosure reveals that he had violated Idaho code §30-14-502(a)(2) by making an unsuitable recommendation in violation of IDAPA 12.01.08.104.04b.
As a result, he faced a civil and administrative penalty of $10,000.
While many financial advisors face small disputes, they rarely face penalties as stringent as this one. Moreover, considering how Anthony has faced multiple complaints and sanctions, it’s evident that he is not as reliable as he claims to be.
There are plenty of financial advisors in the industry with much better track records.
Conclusion
After going through the above points, it’s clear that Anthony Pellegrino is not a trustworthy financial advisory. You should avoid dealing with him and his firm Goldstone Financial Group.
It’s best to only deal with financial advisors who don’t have any disclosures on their profiles. Furthermore, the fact that Anthony promoted a fraudulent security as a reliable one indicates that neither he nor his company, Goldstone Financial Group, perform due diligence properly.
Hence, it would be best to avoid them.
There are plenty of examples of shady financial firms such as Aaron VanTrojen and World Financial Group.
So, avoid.
Can’t trust Anthony for any business deals, his criminal ideas will make you suffer a lot, and there is no problem in waiting for the correct platform for investing.
My only suggestion to the investors is that please get to their previous investment schemes and their generated returns and profit to their customers is very important, we need to make sure our money is safe with us only.
For avoiding the stress of losing your money, maintain a distance from these scammers.
It is our responsibility to expose these firms and their scandals because several users aren’t aware of their criminal past and get their money invested in them, which later makes them regret investing.
Not a trustable site so make sure your time isn’t wasted after this nefarious company, my several friends are regretting it after investing with them.
Not a trustable venture for investing, search for some better opportunities in the market other than this nefarious site, in the name of digital investment they will make your money get in the loss.
This man has got all my money wasted and asked to invest with some useless scheme, claiming to provide high ROI is a complete lie.
He is a complete package of scams, Anthony as an advisor is a fuc$king piece of shit, never trust this fraudster who is making a profit after scamming several clients.
They are promoting fraudulent security services to their clients and making a profit, thus the government should keep a check on people like Anthony and also need to introduce advanced policing services.
The US legal securities should look into the working of these firms due to some lose grip they are misusing the opportunities provided.
Companies like Gold Stone don’t have any legal registration from the authorities and perform various transactions making millions from the investors making them fool around.
Fuc# you Anthony he wasted all my money and time on a fake digital investment scheme, after getting scammed I have placed a legal lawsuit against him thus I will request you not to invest with him.
The company is the type of person who promoted fake and fraudulent security to his clients what a cheap fraudster.
The company’s claims of making your profit and providing you with the perfect piece of information are all a complete pack of bragging thus avoiding Anthony and the firm at all costs.
The company is misusing the investor’s unaware mindset due to a lack of information on the market they keep trusting advisors like Anthony who are waiting for them for making fool of your time and money.
Anthony Pellegrino remembers the name for avoiding any of the business plans provided by this advisor, even if he is connected to any of the firms avoid.
Gold Stone Financial Group remember the name always avoid dealing with them, you will regret it after working with them, and also try to make others aware other about this firm.