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Everest Wealth Management keeps licenses after judge issues restraining order
A Baltimore city judge has put Everest Wealth Management and its owner, Philip Rousseaux, back in business — at least temporarily.
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Karen C. Friedman issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday preventing the Maryland Insurance Administration from enforcing its license suspension of the Towson wealth management company known regionally for its “Money Guys” infomercials.
The suspension will be put on hold for 35 days. A final order is expected Thursday.
The decision comes a week after Attorney General Brian E. Frosh announced the business was being shut down for violating the anti-fraud provisions of Maryland securities law.
“We’re going to be back in business,” said Alex J. Brown, a lawyer for Everest. “We’re very happy.”
Everest was “blindsided” by the suspension order, added Brown, which came in the middle of settlement negotiations between the administration and the company. There was an understanding that there would be a settlement with no revocations, Brown said.
Brown, a partner with Shapiro Sher in Baltimore, said he anticipates the state will not appeal Friedman’s ruling and that the two sides will return to the administrative settlement process.
The MIA will review the judge’s final order when it is issued before deciding on whether to appeal, an agency spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
Everest has accused the insurance administration and the attorney general’s office of singling out the company.
“The firm is open and will remain open and vows to fight the corrupt regulators actions that resulted in this action,” Rousseaux said in a statement Wednesday.
The insurance administration had accused Rousseaux and Everest of falsifying information on forms, using misleading language in infomercials, pre-signing annuity applications on which his signature needed to be dated, using improper tactics to manipulate clients into trusting him and using a special VIP program to encourage existing clients to solicit new business for Everest even though those clients were not licensed insurance producers.
