Former LPL Broker Arrested and Charged with Defrauding Elderly Clients
A veteran financial advisor was arrested and charged with defrauding elderly clients and stealing retirement assets.
A veteran financial advisor was arrested and charged with defrauding elderly clients and stealing retirement assets, according to a joint statement released by Nathaniel Mendell, acting U.S. attorney, and Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston division.
Paul R. McGonigle, who was most recently affiliated with LPL Financial, was charged with three counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He provided investment advisory services under the name Integrated Financial Services.
According to the indictment, beginning in July 2018, McGonigle began making unauthorized withdrawals from his clients’ annuities by allegedly impersonating them on calls with the annuity companies and forging their signatures on withdrawal request forms and other documents.
McGonigle reportedly stole from more than $289,000 from five clients “who were elderly or in poor physical and mental health.” He purportedly continued the alleged fraud for months after being barred by FINRA in November 2020 for failing to respond to their requests for information.
Before moving to LPL in early 2018, McGonigle spent nearly 20 years of his 34-year career at SII Investments, according to his BrokerCheck profile.
For the mail and wire fraud charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of aggravated identity theft has a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison, up to one year of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.
The FBI issued a warrant for his arrest last Tuesday and he appeared before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell the following day.
