What You Have to Know
- The shopper confronted residence foreclosures after the advisor did not make mortgage funds as promised, the DOJ says.
- The shopper had labored 40 years for an air-con firm and could not learn.
- The advisor used his automotive, reasonably than his financial institution employer’s workplace, to satisfy with the shopper.
A former Maryland monetary advisor who lied about making an attempt suicide has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in federal jail for stealing an aged shopper’s life financial savings.
Eddy Ray Blizzard, 45, who made a plea settlement, stole practically $1 million from a now-deceased shopper, “R.M.,” over a few years, inflicting the person’s residence to enter foreclosures a number of months earlier than he died in 2020, the Justice Division introduced earlier this month.
R.M., who had a ninth grade schooling and couldn’t learn or write, began investing and have become Blizzard’s shopper shortly after taking a buyout and retiring in 2003 following a 40-year profession as a business air-con installer in Maryland, in response to the division.
The shopper died in 2020 when he was roughly 75 years previous, the 12 months after his home was foreclosed on as a result of Blizzard hadn’t made promised mortgage funds,. in response to the Justice Division, which stated the previous advisor additionally stole a few of R.M.’s Social Safety earnings.
“Eddy Blizzard deserves yearly he’ll spend behind bars. His merciless and calculated scheme went on for years and his brazen deception prompted nice hurt to the sufferer and his household,” William J. DelBagno, particular agent accountable for the FBI’s Baltimore subject workplace, stated.
“The sufferer spent his life working diligently, saving for retirement, and constructing an inheritance for his family members. Blizzard not solely stole one million {dollars}, however took away their safety and peace of thoughts. The FBI is not going to stand idly by as fraudsters and cheats make the most of our aged residents. We, together with our legislation enforcement companions, vow to establish, examine and pursue these focusing on weak folks in Maryland,” he stated.
Blizzard admitted that after turning into the shopper’s monetary advisor, he started asking R.M. for signed clean checks, in response to prosecutors.
The advisor used the checks for private functions, to not profit R.M., who visited his native financial institution to withdraw money about 12 instances and was instructed the account lacked ample funds, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Maryland stated.
R.M. would then name Blizzard to let him know concerning the deficiency, and Blizzard would inform him to attend a day or two and funds can be there, prosecutors stated.
Blizzard held a number of licenses that allowed him to function as a registered dealer and funding advisor, in response to the plea settlement. From 2003 to 2014, he was employed by a financial institution securities firm, or “Financial institution 1,” and from 2014 to 2017 was employed by a financial institution funding companies firm, “Financial institution 2,” each in Maryland, the Justice Division famous.
Blizzard was registered with M&T Securities Inc. for the previous interval and SunTrust Funding Companies for the latter, in response to the Monetary Business Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck.
When R.M. retired and determined to take a position his retirement funds to supply his grandchildren with an inheritance, he sought funding recommendation from Financial institution 1, the place he had his depository accounts, prosecutors stated.
Blizzard started working at Financial institution 1 shortly after R.M. started investing there and have become his monetary advisor. Blizzard has admitted that in about 2005, he instructed R.M. that he “went out on his personal” as an unbiased monetary advisor and requested R.M. if the shopper needed to depart Financial institution 1 and use Blizzard as a full-time monetary advisor, prosecutors stated.