SEC sues former Baker City adviser over alleged $800,000 fraud scheme

Federal regulators say Jeffrey Higgins, a former Baker City investment adviser, used a sham program called Cumulus to take more than $800,000 in securities from 12 advisory and brokerage clients, including people who trusted him with retirement and long-term investment money. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed its civil case in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, saying the alleged scheme reached across years of client relationships tied to Baker City and Western International Securities.

The SEC says Higgins told clients he could buy discounted securities through a third-party transfer agent and later sell them for a profit. Instead, regulators allege, he bought the securities at market prices, used falsified documents and signatures to move some holdings into his personal brokerage account, and sent clients fake annual reports from a personal Hotmail account. The complaint says the conduct ran from about September 2017 through February 2024, but also says Higgins admitted in June 2024 that he had been misappropriating client securities since around 2007, raising the possibility that the abuse stretched back far longer than the main SEC claims.

The civil action seeks permanent injunctions, conduct-based injunctions, disgorgement with prejudgment interest and civil penalties. Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice said April 22 that Higgins, 54, was charged by information with investment fraud in the District of Oregon. Federal prosecutors say the criminal case covers an alleged scheme from December 2007 through June 2024, during which Higgins stole clients’ shares, sold them and moved the proceeds into his personal bank account.

The fallout already reached the industry last year. FINRA permanently barred Higgins after he refused to provide documents and testimony in a regulatory inquiry that began with a tip. Western International Securities filed notice on June 27, 2024, that it had fired him, and Higgins signed a FINRA acceptance letter the next day. Records show he had 22 years of experience and was associated with Financial West Group from 2001 to 2017 and Western International Securities from 2017 to 2024, doing business as Azzurra Wealth Management.

A June 2023 customer dispute also signaled trouble before the federal cases landed. That complaint sought $210,000 and settled for $94,211. For anyone who placed money with Higgins, the warning signs now include promises of unusually cheap securities, account activity that did not match brokerage statements, and annual reports arriving from a personal email account instead of a firm platform. Victims may still have documents, transfer records and account statements that can help reconstruct what happened and measure the losses.