Charles Patrick Garcia - Sterling Financial Investment Group

Sterling Financial Investment Group

In 1997, with $800,000 in personal funds and seed money from family and friends, García bought assets of Agora Securities of Miami and relocated it to a Mizner Park office in Boca Raton. With two other associates, Alexis C. Korybut and John Curry, García founded the “Sterling Financial Investment Group (SFIG).” An original goal of SFIG was to provide financial services to the U.S. and overseas Hispanic market by partnering with small banks to set up their stock sales and insurance operations. Sterling provided a means of clearing stock trades using García’s relationship with brokerage giant, Bear Stearns & Co.

But, García also focused his business on providing private placement services for large investors. Stock market research focusing on the healthcare and bio tech sectors was a core feature of Sterling Financial Investment Group. From the beginning, Sterling advertised itself being one of the few investment advisors willing to issue “sell” recommendations. Using this model of combining investment research and partnership with small banks, García led his company on a path of aggressive growth, opening offices in a large number of U.S and overseas locations. In 2000, García established the “Sterling Financial Group of Companies” under Sterling Financial Holdings, Inc. Sterling Financial then had three operating subsidiaries:

• Sterling Financial Investment Group, Inc., a broker-dealer subsidiary firm providing financial services,
• myPrivates.com, Inc., an Internet subsidiary providing online networking to entrepreneurs seeking venture capital, and investors searching for private placement opportunities, and
• Sterling Financial Insurance Group, Inc., a wholly owned insurance company encompassing a nationwide network of 225 insurance agents.

The creation of myPrivates.com, Inc. in 2000 cost over $5 million. Also in 2000, García struck a deal for almost $3 million to hire 140 brokers from the recently bankrupt Boca Raton-based Joseph Charles & Associates. To finance this expansion, particularly for the creation of the myPrivates.com subsidiary, García completed two funding rounds of private placement venture capital funding that raised a total of $8 million. Crossbow Ventures, based in Florida's Palm Beach County, was the lead investor in both funding rounds. As a result of the transactions, Crossbow Ventures obtained a minority equity stake in Sterling.

By 2001, SFIG claimed a worldwide network of more than 400 independent agents working out of more than 50 offices in the United States and eight offices in other countries including Panama, Spain, Chile, Greece and England. In years 2001 and 2000, Sterling Financial Investment Group was named by the University of Florida Fischer School of Accounting as the number one fastest growing privately held firms in the State as well as the fastest growing minority owned firm in Florida. In mid-2002, the firm earned state certification as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) which helped attract larger companies wanting to include minority firms as part of their syndicate offerings.

In August 2002, Hispanic Business magazine named Sterling the number one fastest growing Hispanic company in the United States and it made Inc. Magazines “Inc 500 List” as the # 8 fastest growing privately held company in the United States. Mr. García received the “Outstanding Business Leader” award by Northwood University. In December 2004, Mr. García was selected by Hispanic magazine for the "Entrepreneur of the Year” award. Sterling Financial Investment Group issued a number of press releases between 1998 and 2003 that described an explosive rate of revenue growth, shown below. However, the company never reported profit.

By 2003, García recognized that the myPrivates.com, Inc., Internet subsidiary, was unsuccessful and had to be closed. Sterling Financial was then seeking outside investors to provide a cash infusion to continue to fuel expansion in the remaining businesses. But, this effort was hampered by a string of adverse regulatory findings. From 2002 to 2005, García’s company, without admitting or denying any allegations, accepted six fines totaling $456,000 for NASD rule violations. Reported problems included issuing research reports that contained errors and exaggerations, lax record keeping, and weak monitoring of branch offices.

Sterling was also named in a 2004 lawsuit launched in Texas by a number of disgruntled investors of DOBI Medical Systems. Sterling was an underwriter or agent in four DOBI stock sales prior to a 2004 private placement offering. From 2000 through 2004, Sterling also selected one member of DOBI's board of directors. In the DOBI lawsuit, plaintiffs, mostly from Texas, maintain they were defrauded of several million dollars after they bought stock in DOBI in a 2004 private placement offering in which Sterling was the placement agent.

García closed the Sterling Financial Investment Group’s research division in April 2005. In June 2005 Sterling sold its 30 independent brokerage offices in 20 states to Pointe Capital of Delray Beach for about $1 million. Finally, in May 2006, Sterling sold its remaining assets to vFinance, Inc., located in Boca Raton, for $3.4 million. As part of the sales transaction, vFinance agreed to hire Garcia at an annual salary of $262,000. Since vFinance bought the assets of Sterling Financial and not the company, lawyers expect vFinance will not face any liability in the Texas suit. vFinance was then under CEO Tim Mahoney. Following Mahoney’s election to U.S. Representative for Florida's 16th congressional district, Leonard J. Sokolow took over as CEO and board chairman of vFinance, Inc. Under Sokolow, García serves as President of the Sterling Hispanic Markets Capital Group.

vFinance, Inc. is a publicly traded company that has grown to more than $1 billion in assets since its founding in 1997. “In July 2005 vFinance cracked SouthFloridaCEO's South Florida 500 list as one of the Top 100 Public Companies in the region, posting $26.3 million in revenue for 2004. That was up slightly from $24.5 million in 2003.”