The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee has announced charges against former Raymond James financial advisor Frederick M. Stow, of Franklin, Tennessee. According to the charges, Stow stole $933,500 from two elderly clients including a 98-year-old WWII veteran.

According to the charging documents, Stow became a registered representative for the WWII veteran in 1982. The veteran followed Stow to multiple securities firms as Stow changed companies, ultimately becoming Stow’s customer at Raymond James beginning in 2013. According to the complaint, Stow began to place himself in the customer’s personal life, making frequent visits to the customer’s home where he lived alone with full-time nursing care.

By October 2015, Stow allegedly began to take funds from the veteran’s account by forging wire transfer authorizations to transfer funds to Stow’s personal bank account. Stow also began selling securities out of the veteran’s IRA and transferred the sales proceeds to Stow’s own bank account, according to the prosecutors.

The US Attorney claims that by the time of the veteran’s death at age 98 in March 2018, Stow had made 74 unauthorized transfers and stolen more than $900,000.

The charging documents further allege that just weeks after that customer’s death, Stow stole an additional $32,000 from a different elderly brokerage customer by transferring money from the customer’s brokerage account to Stow’s personal bank account.

Stow faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million in the criminal case. Stow’s FINRA BrokerCheck Report likewise notes that he was fired by Raymond James in May 2019 due to misappropriation of customer funds.

In October 2019, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), barred Stow for life from the securities industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed its own civil complaint against Stow last month, based on the same allegations of misappropriating customer funds.

If you or someone you know suffered losses as a customer of Frederick Stow and/or Raymond James & Associates, Inc., you may have a right to recover any losses you have suffered as a result of wrongdoing. For more information, please call the Frankowski Firm at 888.741.7503 or fill out this contact form.