On November 10, 2009, the SEC instituted settled administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against Merman Curhan Ford & Co., D. Jonathan Merman, and Christopher Aguilar. According to the SEC: "These proceedings arise out of Respondents' failure to supervise reasonably [D. Scott] Cacchione, a registered representative who served as the former Managing Director of Client Services at the Merriman Firm. During his employment at the Merriman Firm, Cacchione perpetrated two distinct fraudulent schemes. First, from at least August 2007 through May 2008, Cacchione provided account statements of Merriman Firm customers to his customer and friend, William 'Boots' Del Biaggio III ('Del Biaggio'), so that Del Biaggio could fraudulently pledge the securities held in the innocent customers' accounts to obtain more than $45 million in personal loans. Second, from at least March 2006 through October 2007, Cacchione engaged in fraudulent unauthorized trading in several customer accounts in which he purchased risky microcap securities without his customers' permission, and then was paid the commissions generated from the unauthorized trades."