A Reisterstown, Md., financial advisor was sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised release for stealing nearly $1 million, mostly from a trust account of a child suffering from cerebral palsy.
Ralph Edward Thomas Jr., 53, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in connection with defrauding his clients. Most was taken from an account set up after the mother of a child suffering from cerebral palsy won a $3 million medical malpractice settlement that was to pay her a minimum of $3,990 a month.
The annuity paid nearly $6,300 a month, but Thomas paid only $1,000 to $1,500 to the family and used the rest for himself--including buying a home. Thomas was ordered to pay restitution and forfeit the items he bought, including the home, according to U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. He was sentenced Feb. 3 after he plead guilty.
Thomas was a vice president of Harbor Financial Services, a subsidiary of Harbor Bank. He obtained the mother's signature on blank withdrawal slips, and between 2001 and 2010 took most of the annuity payments for himself for a total of almost $757,000.
He also obtained three mortgages totaling $205,000 on the mother's home without her permission and took $12,500 from the mother's personal bank account.
While employed at Wells Fargo Advisors between 2004 and 2010, Thomas took $75,000 from an account of an elderly customer, in part to pay his personal credit card accounts.
--By Karen DeMasters