He'd call to report a problem here, a setback there. Soon all contact stopped. Today Vishnevetksy hasn't been seen or heard of in a year. And the money that Burkemper's family invested into the vodka stands? It's missing. So, too, are all those expensive autos that Burkemper shipped overseas to fuel the business.
What financial backers say they got in return for their investment in Burkemper's Russian vodka stands.
Watkins says his client personally invested $800,000 in the venture -- money which he will never see again. In the meantime, federal authorities are now looking into the matter. The financial agency FINRA has reprimanded Burkemper and Missouri Secretary of State's Office is now accusing Burkemper of selling unregistered securities in violation of state law.
Adding insult to injury, it was Burkemper's sister in California -- Hilary Burkemper Niemann -- who helped launch the state and federal investigations when she filed a complaint against her brother last August after losing $50,000 in the venture. As it turns out, some of Burkemper's family members are also clients of his Burkemper Group consulting business, meaning that he violated his broker-dealer's orders when he opened up the vodka-stand offer to family members who were also his clients.
Laura Egerdal, a spokesperson with the Secretary of State, says that Burkemper has 30 days to address the allegations made by her office and that the financial consultant could face penalties, be stripped of his brokerage license in Missouri and forced to pay restitution if found guilty.
Egerdal adds that Burkemper's clients were also kept in the dark about Select Auto and didn't know their money was being used to purchase automobiles. Burkemper's attorney refutes that claim and suggests that the Secretary of State's Office is grandstanding in issuing its "cease and desist" order yesterday.
"This is something that my client shutdown a year ago and is doing his best to settle," says Watkins. "With all due respect, it would be worthwhile for the Secretary of State to issue such orders on issues that are currently underway and not ones that are over and done with."
