Blotter
Jail Time For Long Island Advisor
A New York financial advisor was sentenced to five to 15 years in state prison for stealing more than $11 million from 53 clients. Peter Dawson, president of Uniondale, N.Y.-based BMG Advisory Services, plead guilty to second-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to fraud.
Prosecutors said Dawson promised his clients large returns on stocks and annuities, but instead kept the majority of their money for himself. Dawson also told clients to take out mortgages on their homes and give him the money to invest. Some of those clients are now dealing with foreclosures.
A County judge also ordered Dawson to pay $7.7 million in restitution.
Where's Samuel?
The U.S. Marshals Service is searching for a former hedge fund manager who's been convicted of fraud violations, sentenced to a term of 20 years and ordered to repay his victims more than $300 million dollars.
Samuel Israel, co-founder and chief executive of the now-collapsed Bayou Group hedge fund, cheated investors out of more than $400 million dollars. On June 9, Israel failed to show up for the first day of his 20-year sentence. That same day, his car was found near a Hudson River Bridge with the words “Suicide is painless” etched in the dust on the hood.
Authorities say while suicide is not ruled out, they are treating the case as a fugitive investigation.
Stealing From Jesus
An Arizona-based LPL advisor is being charged with 15 felony counts, including one for fraud and 14 counts of theft. Prosecutors say James J. Buchanan stole around $5 million from 30 people. Buchanan allegedly stole about $1 million of that total from the Christ Life Church of Tempe, Ariz., depositing much of the money into his own bank accounts.
Can't Show You The Money
Clients of an allegedly fraudulent Colorado financial advisor will likely see little to no restitution for their losses. Prosecutors say Gene Little, who faces 42 charges ranging from securities fraud to theft, reeled in $11 million in investments from more than 300 Colorado residents between 2002 and 2006 by promising them returns of 15 percent to 20 percent. Jean Woodford, Colorado's First Assistant Attorney General, told a small group of Little's former clients that the state has been unable to find any of the money Little is accused of stealing. What's more, they can't expect the gratification that might come with seeing him behind bars. She said first-time convictions in this kind of case rarely result in prison time.
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