Mark Hopkins Indicted

In an article today in Financial Advisor IQ, it was reported that MARK LEWTON HOPKINS (CRD#: 2653473, Mark Hopkins), a 53 year-old former financial advisor from American Portfolios Financial Services of Grand Blanc, Michigan, is not only facing charges from the SEC, but is now also facing wire fraud charges from the Department of Justice.
On Wednesday, February 10, 2021, Mark Hopkins was indicted on charges that he allegedly implemented a scheme between September of 2017 and January of 2019 of fleecing elderly investors out of more than $1 million by telling the investors they would be making investments in a local credit union, according to ABC News. Instead, Hopkins allegedly put the money into a bank account associated with the Jewel of Grand Blanc Golf Course, which Hopkins owned at the time.
Mark Hopkins allegedly used some of the money from later investors to pay an “investment return” to the earlier investors, and then created false account statements to cover up the alleged scheme, announced by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Mark Lewton Hopkins, in July of 2020, was charged by the SEC with misappropriating approximately $1.15 million from at least five clients in a local credit union program that allegedly never existed. The SEC stated this scheme began by at least 2017.
According to FINRA’s BrokerCheck, Mark Hopkins, was listed in the securities industry for 23 years and was barred by FINRA in May of 2019 following allegations that he, “refused to produce documents and information requested by FINRA in connection with its investigation relating to the issues disclosed in his Form U5.”  Hopkins has 8 Disclosures on his CRD report.  Hopkins was permitted to resign from American Portfolios Financial Services in December of 2018 over allegations of, “RR (registered representative) accepted customer funds for an investment not on the books of the B/D (broker/dealer) without obtaining pre-approval. Funds were returned to customer. Failure to update OBAs. Failure to report judgment.”
Mark Hopkins was listed with 4 firms, the most recent listed below:
07/02/2009 - 12/20/2018  American Portfolios Financial Services, Inc. – Grand Blanc, MI
Soreide Law Group had previously posted the following article on our blog:
https://www.securitieslawyer.com/mark-hopkins-grand-blanc-michigan/
If you or an elderly loved one have experienced financial losses due to the actions or recommendations of the former American Portfolios Financial Services of Grand Blanc, Michigan, broker Mark Hopkins, contact Soreide Law Group and speak to an experienced securities lawyer regarding the possible recovery of your investment losses through a FINRA arbitration at:  888-760-6552.
Soreide Law Group works on a contingency fee basis and represents clients nationwide before FINRA.