ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Cheating Elderly Investors
A Rash of Ponzi Schemes Targeting Seniors
While the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to make protecting seniors a priority, many still fall victim to Ponzi schemes and other financial fraud. Crooked insurance agents, retirement planners, and financial advisors cheat the elderly out of millions of dollars every year through sales of unsuitable products, Ponzi schemes and other frauds. In one recently reported case,[1] a financial advisor bilked at least 30 elderly clients, in their eighties and nineties, out of $3.5 million by selling them worthless promissory notes tied to bogus real estate and oil and gas ventures. The promoters spent the money on country club memberships, lavish vacation cruises, spa treatments, jewelry and more. In another case, an advisor sold over $10 million in unsuitable whole life insurance and second home investments to more than 183 investors, primarily seniors. That advisor used the investors’ money pay his own firm’s operating expenses and to line his own pockets and the pockets of his co-conspirators. In a third recent case, a Ponzi scheme offering investments in uncut diamonds bilked 300 investors out of $30 million before the SEC shut it down.
The Alameda County and California financial elder abuse and securities fraud attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. represent senior victims of investment fraud including Ponzi schemes, sale of unsuitable annuities and annuity churning and other types of securities fraud by advisors and insurance agents. When the victims are seniors, the fraud may constitute State and federal securities law violations and violations of elder abuse protections. If you or a loved one has been the victim of securities fraud or financial elder abuse in California, call our elder abuse and securities fraud lawyers today at (415)441-8669. If you’ve been wronged, we will pursue all remedies including restitution (getting your money back), rescission (undoing an invalid contract), extra damages, and recovery of attorneys’ fees and costs in bringing a financial elder abuse action.
Annuity salesmen and financial advisors often use free lunch seminars to lure seniors into their fraud. In one case, an advisor/planner boasted at a free seminar of unusually high returns for anyone who invested with him, and advertised individualized financial family planning to help prospective clients save for retirement. Those attending the seminars were then asked to submit financial information including tax returns, pay stubs, copies of bills, and information concerning their home equity. The advisor would analyze this information and—targeting families with substantial home equity and good credit—invite them to a private two-day workshop where he sold them expensive whole life policies or bogus second home investments. Many victims lost their life savings, retirement accounts and even their homes as a result of the fraud.
Contact Us
If you have been defrauded by an insurance agent, financial planner, broker or advisor through securities fraud or financial elder abuse including in unsuitable annuities or life insurance, call Ingrid M. Evans and the other Alameda and California securities fraud and financial elder abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. Our attorneys have experience with securities, annuity, and other investment fraud, financial elder abuse cases and complex qui tam or whistleblower cases including offshore tax avoidance cases, complex financial contract cases and cases against large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We also handle cases involving physical elder abuse, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
[1] Evans Law Firm, Inc. was not involved in any of the cases discussed in this blog.
