http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/billsinger\/2012\/01\/24\/stockbroker-defrauds-cerebral-palsy-victim-and-elderly\/print\/<\/a><\/p>\r\nRalph Thomas of Baltimore was a broker and financial planner for Harbor Financial, and from February 2004 until July 2010, he worked for Wells Fargo Advisors.<\/p>\r\n
Thomas met a woman, only identified as KL, who was trustee for a $3 million settlement for her daughter, who developed\u00a0cerebral palsy from injuries she sustained at birth.\u00a0Thomas, allegedly\u00a0got KL to transfer the trust to Harbor Financial, according to Forbes.<\/p>\r\n
Then Thomas allegedly did his dirty work. He was accused of stealing $757,000 from the trust account, using the money to pay off his credit cards and other personal bills.<\/p>\r\n
Then , from June 2006 to May 2009, Thomas took out\u00a0three mortgages in KL’s name on her home.\u00a0He put that money in her Harbor Bank account, and then allegedly\u00a0withdrew that money, about $27,000. He was also accused of takingt $100,000 from the\u00a0\u00a0trust account to buy a home.<\/p>\r\n
But that wasn’t all.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
In 2009, the retired LM made Thomas her financial advisor. LM had an 85-year-old sister with dementia, and she and her sister shared money from an annuity, according to Forbes. Thomas allegedly took $75,000 from LM’s accounty, one again using the money to trim his credir card bills.<\/p>\r\n
A federal indictment outlining Thomas’s alleged crimes was handed up last August.\u00a0He was facing up to 20 years in jail, a $250,000 fine for mail fraud, and forfeiture of $838,000 in funds and luxury items that he had.<\/p>\r\n
But in September, Thomas entered a plea bargain, where he only pleaded guilty to mail fraud. He has to make $838,000 in restitution and forfeit some of his property. And he can’t can’t associate with any firm that’s a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which agreed to his settlement offer to dispose of the allegations pending against him.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Columnist Bill Singer said that\u00a0letting Thomas, who he described as a “low life,” just make a settlement — with no admission of wrongdoing — is just wrong.<\/p>\r\n
“Armed with with a fuller understanding of Thomas’s crimes, I re-read FINRA’s self-regulatory case and realized how pathetic Wall Street regulation truly is,” Singer wrote. “Notwithstanding the epic nature of Thomas’s atrocities,\u00a0FINRA stil felt it okay to accept a settlement that did not require him to admit its charges.\u00a0Seriously?”<\/p>\r\n
That’s what I would ask myself, about a guy who allegedly robbed a cerebral palsy victim and a woman with dementia.\u00a0\u00a0Seriously?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
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Here is a cautionary tale for anyone who has ever received a malpractice judgment. The case, chronicled in Forbes by lawyer Bill Singer, involved a cerebral palsy victim being defrauded by a stockbroker.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/billsinger\/2012\/01\/24\/stockbroker-defrauds-cerebral-palsy-victim-and-elderly\/print\/ Ralph Thomas of Baltimore was a broker and financial planner for Harbor Financial, and from February 2004 until July 2010, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,12,544,9],"class_list":["post-931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cerebral-palsy","tag-cerebral-palsy-attorney","tag-cerebral-palsy-lawsuits","tag-cerebral-palsy-medical-malpractice"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t