Like most other professions, financial services has its share of bad apples. However, the past year had its share of advisors and brokers who proved to be more like rotten or poisoned apples. From conducting Ponzi schemes, stealing from the elderly and veterans, to creating elaborate investment scams using the names of famous people, 2020 had its fair share of fraud charges and prison sentences against advisors and brokers, as well as scammers claiming to be investment advisors. Then there were the advisors who, after conducting their scams, tried to evade capture by the FBI. In one of those cases, the advisor is still at large. But topping them all was the advisor who was charged with murdering one of his clients. ThinkAdvisor searched through Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority enforcement actions, as well as local news outlets, to find some of the worst advisors of the year. Some of these advisors were sentenced in 2020 for earlier charges and others are pending sentencing and/or have agreed to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. There were many fraudsters to choose from, but we narrowed it down to 10. Check out the gallery above to see the top 10 worst financial advisors — and fraudsters impersonating advisors— in America. READ MORE: |
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Jeff Berman
Jeff joined the ThinkAdvisor team as a staff reporter in July 2019. Before joining ThinkAdvisor, he was a freelance reporter for five years, covering mainly technology, business, media and entertainment news for publications including The Miami Herald, Newsday, TheStreet.com, Long Island Press and multiple American City Business Journals websites. He also reported for several consumer electronics publications and was a technology reporter for publications of the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter and editor for Consumer Electronics Daily and other Warren Communications News publications for 15 years. He graduated with an MA in journalism from New York University.
