SEC v. Gregory D. Paris, Barrington Asset Management, Inc. — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Litigation Release No. 26480, dated February 10, 2026.
The SEC dismissed a civil lawsuit against Barrington Asset Management and its owner, Gregory Paris, while simultaneously settling an administrative proceeding. The case alleged that Paris unfairly allocated profitable trades to himself and unprofitable trades to clients between 2015 and 2019, breaching fiduciary duties. Barrington also misrepresented its employee trading reviews.
In Plain English
Imagine you're managing a shared cookie jar for yourself and your friends. Instead of sharing the good cookies equally, you secretly take the best ones for yourself and leave the slightly broken ones for your friends. That's kind of what happened here, but with stock trades. The investment manager took the winning stock trades for himself and gave the losing trades to his clients, which wasn't fair.
Disclaimer: all facts are drawn from the SEC's own filings; the claims described are allegations unless and until a court rules or the parties settle, and some cases end in dismissal.
How the Alleged Scheme Worked
- Trade Execution Between December 2015 and October 2019, Gregory Paris, the chief compliance officer of Barrington Asset Management, managed trades for advisory clients. He often executed these trades through 'Omnibus Accounts,' which allowed him to buy or sell securities for multiple accounts at once without pre-identifying specific client allocations.
- End-of-Day Allocations After executing trades in the Omnibus Accounts, Paris would typically wait until the end of the trading day to decide which trades to assign to himself and which to assign to his advisory clients.
- Day Trades vs. Multi-Day Trades Paris sometimes completed a buy and sell of a security on the same day (a 'day trade') before allocating it. Other times, he would hold a position open overnight or for multiple days ('a multi-day trade') before allocating it.
- Profitable Day Trades Paris allocated a disproportionately large number of these day trades to his own personal account. These day trades, on average, achieved first-day cumulative gains.
- Unprofitable Multi-Day Trades Conversely, Paris assigned a larger share of the multi-day trades to his advisory client accounts. These multi-day trades, on average, resulted in first-day cumulative losses for the clients.
- Client Disadvantage This practice of allocating profitable trades to himself and less profitable ones to clients disadvantaged his clients. For example, Paris allocated trades that resulted in $78,490.00 in excess first-day gains to himself during the relevant period.
- Misleading Disclosures Barrington's client disclosures, specifically its Form ADV Part 2A Brochures, misrepresented the firm's practices. They claimed to 'seek to minimize the risk that any advisory client could be systematically advantaged or disadvantaged' and ensure 'all clients are treated fairly.'
- False Review Claims Furthermore, Barrington's disclosures falsely stated that the firm reviewed employee trading, including Paris's personal trading, which contradicted the actual allocation practices.
- Breach of Fiduciary Duty Paris's disproportionate allocations breached his and Barrington's fiduciary duties to their clients, as they were not treated fairly and were systematically disadvantaged by his personal trading strategy.
The Enforcement Action
On February 10, 2026, the SEC dismissed its civil enforcement action against Barrington Asset Management and Gregory D. Paris with prejudice. Simultaneously, the SEC instituted a settled administrative proceeding against them. The administrative order found that Paris disproportionately allocated profitable securities trades to himself and unprofitable trades to his advisory clients between December 2015 and October 2019, breaching fiduciary duties. Barrington also misrepresented its review of employee trading. The settlement included a cease-and-desist order and remedial sanctions.
Named in this action: Gregory D. Paris, Barrington Asset Management, Inc..