January 2017-Old Lyme, Connecticut
The Day, an online news service covering a 20 town region in eastern Connecticut reports that John W. Rafal, 66, of Old Lyme, founder and former CEO of Essex Financial Services faces four months home confinement and four months probation and a fine of $4,000 for lying to Securities and Exchange Commission investigators who were looking into illegal referral payments to a Branford lawyer for steering clients to the firm.
According to the article, Rafal had made a deal with attorney Peter D. Hershman to pay him $50,000 for referring the business of a wealthy widow to Essex Financial.
Publicly available records reveal that in January 2017 Rafal was permanently barred from acting as a broker or investment adviser or otherwise associating with firms that sell securities or provide investment advice to the public.
The SEC Order can be viewed here.
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