Former Advisor Receives Nearly 22 Years in Prison Over Fake-Annuity Scheme

Posted on August 23rd, 2022 at 2:37 PM
Former Advisor Receives Nearly 22 Years in Prison Over Fake-Annuity Scheme

From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law.

A former Ohio-based advisor has received a 22-year prison sentence after being convicted of misappropriating at least $9.3 million from clients.

The former advisor, Raymond Erker, was sentenced to 262 months in prison for his role in operating an annuities-related Ponzi scheme. According to prosecutors, Erker misappropriated $9.37 million from nearly 54 clients between January 2013 and July 2018. Erker sold purported investments to clients, which he misrepresented as annuities and senior secured notes with no risk of loss and a guaranteed rate of return. However, Erker improperly siphoned the funds to alternative entities under his control as well as to personal bank accounts.

Erker additionally failed to inform his clients that he possessed ownership interests in the entities receiving income from the purported investments. Furthermore, Erker made Ponzi-style payments to earlier investors, which he categorized as rates of return and interest, according to prosecutors. Erker “misled, cheated and conned over fifty victims, many of them elderly, into trusting him with their life savings and hard-earned retirement funds, all for guaranteed rates of return and low-risk investments that were fabricated”, according to Ohio First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle M. Baeppler. According to BrokerCheck, Erker has not been registered as an advisor since his time at SageGuard Financial concluded in 2019.

Eccleston Law LLC represents investors and financial advisors nationwide in securities, employment, regulatory and disciplinary matters.

Tags: eccleston, eccleston law, advisors, law

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