A screenshot of the VisionQuest’s website.
The assets of a North Carolina-based wealth management firm’s CEO are still on lockdown and the company’s Richmond outpost is still in the dark nearly a month after its headquarters in Raleigh was searched by the feds.
That’s despite a push by Stephen Peters, founder and CEO of VisionQuest Wealth Management, for more details on why federal agents raided his office and home in July and why the bulk of his personal assets and some business assets continue to be frozen by the government.
The saga began July 12 with reports in Raleigh of agents with the FBI and U.S. Treasury executing search warrants. In federal court filings since then, the government has successfully fought to maintain a restraining order barring access to certain assets.
No formal charges have been filed in a civil case that was put on the docket the day of the raid, and many of the court documents remain sealed, even beyond the view of Peters and his legal counsel.
The case names as defendants Peters, his wife Amy Peters, VisionQuest Wealth LLC, VisionQuest Wealth Management LLC and VisionQuest Capital LLC.
A judge in North Carolina federal court last week extended the asset freeze until Aug. 15.
This has all continued to leave Kevin Deckert, a longtime Richmond financial advisor who sold his firm Deckert Financial Management to VisionQuest in 2015, in the dark.
“(Peters) has not been charged or indicted so we really do not know anything of fact as to why or what for,” Deckert said this week. “I know nothing more than what you’re seeing. I wish I knew more, I really do.”
Deckert said the assets of his wealth management clients and other VisionQuest Wealth clients are safe and readily available to those clients, as they are not tied to Peters’ assets.
“Those assets that belong in a custodial platform are separate and distinct,” he said. “They have frozen (Peters’) assets, not client assets.”
Deckert would not comment on whether he’s considering moving his practice away from VisionQuest.
His firm, which had been in business for decades in Richmond, had about $70 million in client assets when it was acquired by VisionQuest two years ago. The firm overall now has around $200 million in assets under management, according to court records.
Deckert said he’s asked for answers from Peters and VisionQuest, but that Peters has gone silent at the urging of his attorneys.
Click image to view full PDF.
At an Aug. 2 hearing, a judge extended the restraining order denying Stephen and Amy Peters from their assets to Aug. 15. A hearing will then decide whether to extend it through Oct. 10, as the government has requested.
Reports out of Raleigh last week from WRAL said investigators at a court hearing suspect “at least four federal crimes have been committed.”
But in light of the lack of charges or indictments, attorneys for Peters and his wife have argued in court that the government must eventually show evidence supporting probable cause for the continued asset freeze.
They said in court filings that the freeze affects the couple’s personal and business banking accounts, their home and an overseas vacation rental property.
“The government’s restraint is impeding Mr. Peters’ ability to care for his family and meet his day-to-day living expenses,” his attorneys argued, adding that it has “effectively shuttered Mr. Peters’s business operations.”
“Two weeks ago, Stephen Peters was known as the owner and operator of a number of longstanding Raleigh businesses, an involved member of the community, and a devoted husband and father. Today, the world views Mr. Peters very differently,” his lawyers stated in a 16-page filing July 24.
It cited the dramatic effect of helicopter footage of the search warrants being executed at his house and reporters watching as agents searched his office.
“The implication of wrongdoing at VisionQuest has led boarders to remove their horses from his family stables, his employees to leave his companies, and longtime clients and investors to demand the return of their funds.”
The filings state that federal code allows for such a restraining order over assets if probable cause can be shown that the assets in question would be subject to forfeiture upon conviction or that giving notice prior to an asset freeze would “jeopardize the availability of the property.”
Peters’ attorneys, from the Ward and Smith law firm in Raleigh, say in court filings the government’s actions of “near-total secrecy” can’t continue in perpetuity without some explanation.
“As a result, Mr. Peters has endured this cataclysm without a meaningful explanation of why it is happening.”
A screenshot of the VisionQuest’s website.
The assets of a North Carolina-based wealth management firm’s CEO are still on lockdown and the company’s Richmond outpost is still in the dark nearly a month after its headquarters in Raleigh was searched by the feds.
That’s despite a push by Stephen Peters, founder and CEO of VisionQuest Wealth Management, for more details on why federal agents raided his office and home in July and why the bulk of his personal assets and some business assets continue to be frozen by the government.
The saga began July 12 with reports in Raleigh of agents with the FBI and U.S. Treasury executing search warrants. In federal court filings since then, the government has successfully fought to maintain a restraining order barring access to certain assets.
No formal charges have been filed in a civil case that was put on the docket the day of the raid, and many of the court documents remain sealed, even beyond the view of Peters and his legal counsel.
The case names as defendants Peters, his wife Amy Peters, VisionQuest Wealth LLC, VisionQuest Wealth Management LLC and VisionQuest Capital LLC.
A judge in North Carolina federal court last week extended the asset freeze until Aug. 15.
This has all continued to leave Kevin Deckert, a longtime Richmond financial advisor who sold his firm Deckert Financial Management to VisionQuest in 2015, in the dark.
“(Peters) has not been charged or indicted so we really do not know anything of fact as to why or what for,” Deckert said this week. “I know nothing more than what you’re seeing. I wish I knew more, I really do.”
Deckert said the assets of his wealth management clients and other VisionQuest Wealth clients are safe and readily available to those clients, as they are not tied to Peters’ assets.
“Those assets that belong in a custodial platform are separate and distinct,” he said. “They have frozen (Peters’) assets, not client assets.”
Deckert would not comment on whether he’s considering moving his practice away from VisionQuest.
His firm, which had been in business for decades in Richmond, had about $70 million in client assets when it was acquired by VisionQuest two years ago. The firm overall now has around $200 million in assets under management, according to court records.
Deckert said he’s asked for answers from Peters and VisionQuest, but that Peters has gone silent at the urging of his attorneys.
Click image to view full PDF.
At an Aug. 2 hearing, a judge extended the restraining order denying Stephen and Amy Peters from their assets to Aug. 15. A hearing will then decide whether to extend it through Oct. 10, as the government has requested.
Reports out of Raleigh last week from WRAL said investigators at a court hearing suspect “at least four federal crimes have been committed.”
But in light of the lack of charges or indictments, attorneys for Peters and his wife have argued in court that the government must eventually show evidence supporting probable cause for the continued asset freeze.
They said in court filings that the freeze affects the couple’s personal and business banking accounts, their home and an overseas vacation rental property.
“The government’s restraint is impeding Mr. Peters’ ability to care for his family and meet his day-to-day living expenses,” his attorneys argued, adding that it has “effectively shuttered Mr. Peters’s business operations.”
“Two weeks ago, Stephen Peters was known as the owner and operator of a number of longstanding Raleigh businesses, an involved member of the community, and a devoted husband and father. Today, the world views Mr. Peters very differently,” his lawyers stated in a 16-page filing July 24.
It cited the dramatic effect of helicopter footage of the search warrants being executed at his house and reporters watching as agents searched his office.
“The implication of wrongdoing at VisionQuest has led boarders to remove their horses from his family stables, his employees to leave his companies, and longtime clients and investors to demand the return of their funds.”
The filings state that federal code allows for such a restraining order over assets if probable cause can be shown that the assets in question would be subject to forfeiture upon conviction or that giving notice prior to an asset freeze would “jeopardize the availability of the property.”
Peters’ attorneys, from the Ward and Smith law firm in Raleigh, say in court filings the government’s actions of “near-total secrecy” can’t continue in perpetuity without some explanation.
“As a result, Mr. Peters has endured this cataclysm without a meaningful explanation of why it is happening.”
That man deserves everything that he has coming to him. The FBI doesn’t search your home for no reason. I met him once and knew immediately that he was a shady guy. This, unfortunately, does not surprise me one bit.