Charges Dropped Against Former Dillon Employee

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts this week cleared a Harvard student of charges filed against him stemming from his involvement with Bill Dillon and Co., a student-run investment firm the state closed down earlier this month.

Robert Tillman '78 and two other former Dillon employees had been charged with transacting business in Massachusetts without registering as agents with the Massachusetts Securities Division of the Secretary of State's Office.

The state dropped the allegations against Tillman for lack of sufficient evidence, but are pressing forward with their investigation of Bill Dillon '79, founder and president of the now-defunct firm.

Dillon was charged with preparing letters for customers without their knowledge and misrepresenting his firm as a separate business entity when in fact it was a branch of Securities Investment Services Corp. of Boston. State officials could revoke Dillon's license or press criminal charges.

Charges against two other Dillon Co. employees, Carl Kaufman '77 and Brian Desmond, also still stand.

Tillman said the now-revoked charges against him stemmed from a letter he wrote to a tailor he knew in which he provided a small amount of advice on securities. Tillman said investigators decided the letter did not constitute "transacting business."