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Nebraska Advisor Accused of $1M Fraud, Commits Suicide

Jerome "Joe" Bonnett, a longtime financial advisor from Omaha, Nebraska who was accused by state officials of misappropriating over $1.35 million of client funds, has committed suicide. Bonnett operated the Bonnett Wealth Management investment firms. Two Nebraska law enforcement officials familiar with the two month investigation stated that Bonnett's clients have lost as much as $2 million. The FBI is also involved in the investigation. The allegations, which span at least nine years, have “all the makings of a Ponzi scheme,” officials said. Bonnett had been charged with two felonies: first-degree forgery and a fraudulent insurance charge, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said. Kleine also stated he filed the initial charges to try to ensure that Bonnett remained in the Omaha area. Prosecutors said they asked a judge to set “significantly high” bail. The judge set Bonnett’s bail at $100,000 and ordered him to surrender his passport. He paid $10,000 — 10 percent of the bail amount — and [...]

By |June 10th, 2016|Fraud, Press Releases & News|
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Alabama Man Sentenced For Securities Fraud

Keith Michael Rogers of Huntsville, Alabama was sentenced by Madison County Circuit Court Judge Alison Austin to three years in prison for securities fraud. He received a ten year split sentence and will serve three years and has seven suspended. Judge Austin also ordered Rogers to pay $1.7 million in restitution. The sentencing follows Rogers' guilty plea in March in which he admitted to using his clients' investment money in a Ponzi scheme. The plea included one count of securities fraud. According to authorities, Rogers took more than $2.5 million from his investors and was using the money for his personal expenses and using funds from new clients to pay back earlier clients in classic Ponzi fashion. According to Madison County Assistant District Attorney Jay Town, Rogers' clients included former University of Alabama running back Kenneth Darby. According to FINRA's BrokerCheck, Rogers has been permanently barred from acting as a broker or otherwise associating with firms that sell securities to [...]

By |May 27th, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA, Fraud, Press Releases & News|
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UDF IV Defaults On $35M Loan

United Development Funding IV (UDF IV), a Texas Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), has defaulted on a $35 million term loan and has suspended its distributions to shareholders. The trust has been surrounded by trouble since December, when an anonymous post on an investor website claimed that UDF IV was operating as a Ponzi scheme. Later it became known that hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, founder of Hayman Capital Management, was shorting the trust. Shares in the company dropped for months before they stopped trading at $3.20 after the FBI raided UDF's offices outside of Dallas in February. The loan UDF IV defaulted on was issued in July 2014 by Waterfall Finance 4. As part of the default, the trust has entered into a forbearance agreement with three lenders who succeeded Waterfall Finance 4. The agreement became effective on March 4, when UDF acknowledged certain events of default, according to a filing made with the SEC on May [...]

By |May 25th, 2016|Fraud, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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PA Financial Advisor Defrauds Pro Athletes

Louis Martin Blazer, III, a financial advisor from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area took cash from numerous professional athletes to invest in movie projects in which he had an interest, according to the SEC. Blazer used roughly $2.35 million from five clients without their authorization to help finance two motion pictures: "Mafia the Movie" and "Sibling." In one instance, Blazer allegedly thieved $500,000 from the account of an athlete who had refused to invest in the projects. When that client discovered what Blazer had done and threatened a lawsuit, Blazer began taking money from another athlete to make the repayment in "Ponzi-like fashion," according to the SEC. “We allege that Blazer grossly abused the trust placed in him by his clients and repeatedly took their money without authorization,” said Andrew Calamari, director of the SEC's New York Regional Office. “And when our examiners put him on the spot, he resorted to false statements and false documents.” Blazer, who lives in Clinton, [...]

By |May 9th, 2016|Broker Check, FINRA, Fraud, Press Releases & News, SEC|
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