Former UBS Advisor Pleads Guilty to Spending Client Funds on Girlfriends’ Gifts

Posted on April 26th, 2022 at 11:49 AM
Former UBS Advisor Pleads Guilty to Spending Client Funds on Girlfriends’ Gifts

From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law:

A former UBS advisor has pleaded guilty to misappropriating $5.8 million in client funds primarily to cover gifts for girlfriends, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

According to the SEC, the gifts included private school tuition, luxury vehicles and an apartment in Colombia. In January, the Justice Department and SEC each filed suit against German Nino, who pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, according to court documents. Nino, 56, will be sentenced on June 21 and is potentially facing a 60-year prison sentence. According to the SEC, Nino completed 62 unauthorized transfers totaling $5.8 million from three related clients between May 2014 and February 2020. 

Nino confessed to making materially false statements to the clients, misrepresenting the true performance of the accounts, and forging client signatures in an effort to fraudulently authorize transfers. According to the SEC, Nino spent $4.6 million of the stolen funds on gifts for several girlfriends and used the additional $1.2 million to repay a separate client whom he had previously misappropriated funds.  

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

 
 

Tags: eccleston law, sec, ubs

Return to Archive

TESTIMONIALS

Previous
Next

If you find yourself in trouble with the regulators, call Eccleston Law, you won't regret it.

Rick R.

LATEST NEWS AND ARTICLES

September 17, 2025
FINRA Suspends Centaurus Dallas Broker Over Excessive Alternative Investment Sales

FINRA has suspended a Centaurus Financial broker, William Burks, for four months after finding he placed as much as 91 percent of a client’s net worth into illiquid alternative investments.

September 16, 2025
Former Morgan Stanley Advisors Win Partial Court Victory in Client Solicitation Dispute

Two former Morgan Stanley advisors in Hackensack, New Jersey have defeated Morgan Stanley’s initial effort to block them from soliciting clients, according to an August 15 order from New Jersey Superior Court.

September 15, 2025
California Young-Gun Investor Charged in Alleged $6 Million Ponzi Scheme

Federal prosecutors have accused Mihir Deepak Sukthankar, a California resident once celebrated as a teenage trading “prodigy,” of orchestrating a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme.