A former Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. investment broker was sentenced to six years in prison for stealing nearly $1 million from two elderly brothers who were his clients, acting Attorney General of New Jersey John J. Hoffman announced today.
Randy Schneider, 44, of West Orange, N.J., pleaded guilty in December to a second-degree charge of unlawful theft of client funds. Under the plea agreement, Schneider consented to pay full restitution to his victims.
“This defendant is a common thief in a business suit,” said Hoffman. “By stealing upwards of a million dollars from two vulnerable and trusting clients, he proved that a prison jumpsuit is the more appropriate attire for him.”
Schneider worked as a broker for Oppenheimer & Co. in Florham Park, N.J., from January 2002 through October 2011, when the firm fired him after discovering he had misappropriated checks from one of the two victims, the attorney general said.
Schneider stole more than $900,000 from an elderly professor by taking cash, interest from bearer bond coupons and bonds. He stole an additional $20,000 in the same manner from that client’s younger brother, a medical doctor who also was a client at Oppenheimer.
Schneider also pleaded guilty to stealing $11,000 worth of jewelry from an ex-girlfriend and $26,000 from a bank by opening a new account with a fraudulent check and withdrawing the funds before the bank discovered his fraud. Those incidents occurred after Oppenheimer fired him.