Senior Investors

SEC Bars Former Wells Fargo Broker Over Alleged $1.3M Senior Investor Fraud

Published on: March 11, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Just a few weeks after former Wells Fargo (WFC) broker John Gregory Schmidt consented to a final judgment in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) investor fraud case against him, the regulator announced that it has barred Schmidt for misappropriating more than $1.3M from clients, most of them elderly retired investors. Schmidt, who also ran Schmitt Investment Strategies Group in Ohio and was already barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra), was fired by Wells Fargo in 2017. In a parallel criminal case, he is also charged with 128 felony counts over the same fraud allegations.

The SEC’s complaint notes that at the time that Wells Fargo fired Schmidt, he had about 325 retail brokerage customers. At least half of them had worked with him for over a decade, and a “significant percentage” were retirees who depended on regular withdrawals from their brokerage accounts to cover their living expenses. Many of them were unsophisticated, inexperienced investors, some of whom were suffering from dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Schmidt’s scam purportedly involved making unauthorized sales and withdrawals involving variable annuities from certain customers’ accounts and then using fraudulent authorization letters to move the money to the other clients’ accounts. According to the Commission’s complaint, between ’03 and ’17, Schmidt took money out of seven clients’ accounts and moved the funds to the accounts of other clients to conceal shortfalls there.

Retirement Losses: First Allied Securities and Financial Adviser to Pay Retirees Over $1.6M for Investment Advice, MetLife to Pay Another $189M to Individuals Owed Pensions, and Duke University Will Pay Over $10M to Settles Lawsuits Alleging ERISA Violations

Published on: February 4, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Investors Alleging Negligence and Mishandling of Their Retirement Funds Win FINRA Case

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) panel arbitration is ordering First Allied Securities and financial adviser Larry Glenn Boggs to pay claimants and early retirees Nita and Mike Snow over $578K in compensatory damages, $500,000 in punitive damages, $350K in attorney’s fees, and $60K in other costs related to losses they sustained. Boggs had worked with the Snows on their early retirement plan, which included investing in the Sun America Life-issued variable annuity the Polaris Advantage II and other investments.

In their securities arbitration claim, the Snows sought compensation from Boggs, First Allied Securities, First Allied Advisory Securities, and American Retirement Solutions of Louisiana, LLC. All of them denied wrongdoing.

Ex- Wells Fargo Broker Faces 128 Felony Counts in Alleged $1M Ponzi Scam

Published on: January 3, 2019 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

John G. Schmidt, an ex-Wells Fargo (WFC) broker, is now facing 128 felony counts over his alleged running of a $1M Ponzi scam. Criminal charges include:

124 counts of forgery
1 count of telecommunications fraud

FINRA Sues Ex-Morgan Stanley Broker Ami Forte for Elder Financial Fraud

Published on: December 27, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that it is suing Ami Forte, a former star Morgan Stanley (MS) broker. Forte is accused of making unsuitable trades in the account of Home Shopping Network co-founder Roy M. Speer, who was mentally impaired and bedridden at the end of his life.

Forte earned over $9M commissions in less than a year from her work with Speer alone, and overall his accounts were responsible for nearly 90% of the commissions she made. At one point she was considered one of the highest earning female financial advisers in the US.

While the FINRA fraud complaint only refers to the older investor by his initials, news sources and other court documents identify the elder financial fraud victim as Mr. Speer. The Home Shopping Network co-founder, who was 80 when he died in 2012, had an estimated worth of about $775M in 2003. For a time, he was romantically involved with Forte.

Former Lombard Securities Broker Pleads Guilty in Multimillion-Dollar Ponzi Scam That Defrauded Older Investors

Published on: December 11, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Steven Pagartanis, an ex-New York broker with Lombard Securities, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and mail fraud in a Ponzi scam that went on for more than 18 years and caused investors to lose more than $9M of the over $13M that they invested. Many of his victims were older investors who lost a significant amount of their life savings. Many of them had worked with Pagartanis for years.

According to the release by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, from 1/2000 to 3/2018, Pagartanis persuaded older individuals to get involved in investments involving real estate, including those that had affiliations with an international hotel conglomerate and publicly traded entities. Investors were told that their principal was secure and they would make a fixed return of 4.5 to 8% yearly.

Pagartanis’ victims were instructed to write checks to an entity of which he was secretly in control. The former broker used different bank accounts to launder the stolen money that he then spent on his own expenses as well as to pay other investors their “interest or dividend payments” that they were owed. He set up bogus account statements so as to encourage further investing and to hide his fraud.

Investment Advisor Fraud: Dawn Bennett is Convicted in $20M Ponzi Scam, Guilty Plea Reached in $6.1M Fraud, and Genesis Advisory Services Operator Settles SEC Charges

Published on: October 18, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Former Financial Adviser Now Facing Years in Prison for $20M Investor Fraud

Dawn Bennett, an ex-financial adviser and the operator of Bennett Financial Group Services, has been convicted of 17 criminal charges, including securities fraud, conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements on a loan application. It took a federal jury less than five hours to convict her for a $20M ponzi scam that defrauded nearly four dozen investors, including many older investors and retirees. Some of her advisory clients took money out of their retirement accounts to invest with Bennett.

Prosecutors contend that the former financial adviser, who is also an ex-radio show host, used investors’ money to pay back earlier investors in Ponzi-like fashion and to fund her luxury lifestyle. This purportedly included paying priests in India to conduct religious ceremonies to keep regulators away, a $500K luxury suite at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium, and cosmetic surgery procedures.

Wayde McKelvy, Accused of Defrauding Retirees and Widows in $54M Ponzi Scam, is Now on Trial

Published on: October 8, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Wayde McKelvy, who is accused of playing a key role in a $54M Ponzi scam that targeted unsophisticated investors, is on trial before a federal jury. According to the US government, McKelvy, who is a former co-owner of Mantria Corp., and two others allegedly sold fake investments in green energy and land to investors, including retirees and widows, and then used the funds to support their luxury lifestyles.

Investors were promised up to 50% returns on a supposed new charcoal substitute comprised of organic waste, as well as on real estate in Tennessee. The land, however, was never developed.

Meantime, investors were told that the Tennessee land was valued at over $100M. Through Mantria Financial, the alleged co-conspirators assisted investors in purchasing investments in both the land deals and the charcoal substitute, known as “biochar.”

Investor Fraud: Steele Financial is Accused of Selling Over $13M in Risky Securities, NJ Broker Allegedly Cherry Picked Trades, and the SEC Files Charges in $27M Microcap Fraud

Published on: September 15, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Steele Financial is Accused of Investor Fraud

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against investment advisory firm Steele Financial Inc. and its owner Tamara Steele. According to the regulator, they allegedly sold $13M of risky securities to over 120 advisory clients. A lot of these clients are teachers, ex-teachers, or other public education employees. The SEC contends that Steele and her investment advisory firm did not tell them that Steele Financial would be making up to 18% in commissions in sales.

According to the Commission’s investment advisory fraud complaint, from 12/2012 to 10/2016, Stele Financial and Steele sold over $15M of Behavioral Recognition Systems Inc. securities. BRS is a company that the SEC has charged with fraud in the past. Meantime, Stele and her firm made over $2.5M of commissions.

Investor Fraud: Alleged $100M Future Income Payments Fraud, Capital Investment Group to Pay One Elderly Investor $400K, and Tech Fund Adviser is Now Facing Fraud Charges

Published on: August 24, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Over 1000 Investors May Be Victims of Alleged Future Income Payments Fraud

Dozens of stockbrokers, financial planners, financial advisers, and insurance agents are now the defendants of investor fraud lawsuits over an alleged $100M scam that may have bilked over 1000 investors. Many of these investors were retirees, which means that elder investor fraud may have been involved.

InvestmentNews reports that according to the plaintiffs, the advisers breached their fiduciary obligation and were negligent when they sold them structured cash flows offered by Future Income Payments, LLC. At least 370 investment intermediaries in the US are believed to have sold these investments to investors, with the representatives receiving 6-10% in commissions upfront.

Chicago Investment Adviser Daniel Glick Is Sentenced For Senior Investor Fraud

Published on: April 23, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Daniel Glick, a Chicago-Based investment adviser who bilked clients, including older investors, of $5.2M, has been sentenced to 151 months in prison. He also has to pay $5.2M in restitution. Glick’s Ponzi-like fraud took place between 2011 and 2016.

Glick, who is the owner of Glick Accounting Services Inc., Financial Management Strategies Inc., and Glick & Associates Ltd., pleaded guilty earlier this year to wire fraud. He told clients that not only would he invest their funds but also that he would pay their bills for them. He sent them account statements that were “false and misleading.”

Glick’s own family, including his wife’s parents, were among his victims. He defrauded them of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another family paid him $700K in fees while he misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars. Clients’ funds were also used to pay two business associates.