Brantley Capital Management and its former managers charged with fraud by SEC

Brantley Capital Management LLC and two of its former executives were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with securities fraud. According to the regulator’s complaint former CEO of the investment firm Robert Pinkas and former chief financial officer Tab Keplinger overstated the value of investments in two failing private companies that accounted for more than half the investment portfolio of Brantley Capital Corp., a New York-based investment company, between 2002 and 2005.

Brantley Capital Management of Beachwood, Ohio, was the investment advisory firm that managed the portfolio of Brantley Capital. The SEC says in the filing that Mr. Pinkas and Mr. Keplinger also made material misrepresentations and failed to make required disclosures to Brantley Capital Management's board of directors, independent auditors and investors.

“When asset values are overstated in public filings, investors are unable to make appropriate investment decisions,” Christopher Conte, associate director in the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. 

Brantley Capital Management and Mr. Pinkas are disputing the SEC's charges. Meantime Mr. Keplinger agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the allegations. He has agreed to pay a $50,000 penalty and is suspended from practicing before the SEC as an accountant for five years and is barred from associating with an investment advisory firm for one year.