The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former account executive and investment advisor Michael Barry Carter with fraud for stealing $6 million Dollars from brokerage customers and an elderly advisory client.
Carter, 47, (claimed to be) stole from victims including an old investment client who had been saving a university fund for her grandson and from people he knew "through family-related ties and friendship, "Consistent with a complaint brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The complaint accuses reports he used the Cash to fund an Upscale lifestyle that included an expensive and desirable car and enormous home mortgage.
Carter has not yet entered a plea in response to the SEC's charges.
Federal criminal charges were also leveled against Carter, to which he
pleaded guilty on Monday, consistent with a release from the District Court of Maryland.
"For over 12 years, Michael Carter (did something illegal) a shockingly bold big plan that cheated victim account holders whose investments he was alleged to protect," US Lawyer for the District of Maryland Robert Hur said within the release. "When his illegal stealing (by lying) was discovered, Carter repaid some victims by taking money from other victim accounts."
Carter worked as a financial adviser and broker at Morgan Stanley's McLean, Virginia, office from 2006 to 2019, apart from a several-month period in 2011 when he worked for an additional financial services firm, consistent with the SEC's investment advisor registry. He was fired from Morgan Stanley in July 2019 following allegations that he misappropriated client funds, the location shows, and is not any longer licensed to figure as a broker or investment advisor.
Carter couldn't be reached for comment. A Morgan Stanley spokesperson told CNN Business during a statement that the firm is "strongly committed to the protection of valuable things, and to act quickly when illegal activity is uncovered."
"The Advisor's employment was terminated as soon as his activity came to our attention, and that we immediately reported the interest the acceptable enforcement and regulatory authorities and are cooperating with their investigations," "There were a limited number of clients impacted and any money stole by the advisor was returned."
The SEC claims that Carter falsified internal documents in order to permit the flow of dozens of wire moves from clients' accounts to his personal account. To carry out the possible big plant plan, Carter sold securities without customer approval and (changed to flow or route differently) clients' account statements to addresses he controlled.
Carter also made almost $1.5 million in unauthorized moves from the accounts of the old client, sending nearly $1 million to himself and using some of the rest to pay back the money he had taken from another client, according to the SEC's complaint.
After being fired from Morgan Stanley last July, Carter admitted to workers of the company in August that he had cheated five people and "that he had created clients' signatures on bank approval forms, that he had created false statements to disguise his theft, and sometimes had mailed those statements," according to a press release from the District Court of Maryland.
In the case of one victim, referred to as Victim 1, Carter admitted he had met the woman at her home and "answered Victim 1's phone in order to approve the transactions, unknown to Victim 1," as a way of overcoming the bank's multifactor checking system, the Maryland court said.
Carter also made almost $1.5 million in unauthorized moves from the accounts of the old client, sending nearly $1 million to himself and using some of the rest to pay back the money he had taken from another client, according to the SEC's complaint.
After being fired from Morgan Stanley last July, Carter admitted to workers of the company in August that he had cheated five people and "that he had created clients' signatures on bank approval forms, that he had created false statements to disguise his theft, and sometimes had mailed those statements," according to a press release from the District Court of Maryland.
In the case of one victim, referred to as Victim 1, Carter admitted he had met the woman at her home and "answered Victim 1's phone in order to approve the transactions, unknown to Victim 1," as a way of overcoming the bank's multifactor checking system, the Maryland court said.
The SEC is looking relief including the return of Carter's "(bad or poorly)-gotten gains" and a civil penalty. As for the criminal charges, Carter faces a maximum legal punishment/time spent punished of 20 years in federal prison for (using computers and cell phones to steal money)
and a maximum legal punishment of five years for investment person illegal stealing (by lying). As part of his plea agreement, Carter will be demanded to pay a money-based judgment of nearly $4.4 million, the total net go-ahead he gained from the big plan.
Post a Comment