A former LPL Financial broker has been criminally and civilly charged with allegedly swindling more than $1.3 million from one of his clients and using the money for a down payment on his home, mortgage payments and other personal expenses.
Patrick Thayer, 47, of Cincinnati, on Tuesday was indicted by a Warren County, Ohio, grand jury on two counts of securities fraud, one count of aggravated theft, one count of telecommunications fraud and one count of identity fraud, according to a news release from Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday, June 30, the release said.
In a parallel civil case, the Securities and Exchange Commission, in a complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Western Division, accuses Thayer of stealing from the client for nearly a decade from about November 2013 through August 2022.
The SEC said Thayer, without admitting or denying the allegations, consented to a partial settlement, in which he has agreed “to be permanently enjoined from future violations of the charged provisions and to pay monetary relief in an amount to be determined by the court.”
Thayer, who had been a registered representative of various broker dealers since 2010, most recently LPL, operated Broadway Financial Solutions, a Lebanon, Ohio-based tax preparation and investment advisory services business, the SEC said.
The complaint said Thayer began managing the client’s brokerage account since at least April 2012. The client stuck with him as he changed broker dealers. The SEC said Thayer, without the client’s knowledge or permission, opened a bank account under the client’s name in November 2013, forging the client’s signature on the account opening documents and using his Broadway Financial office address instead of the client’s address. The account was set up so that he could access and transfer funds from it.
The complaint said Thayer sold assets in the client’s brokerage account, which were mutual funds totaling $69,992. He transferred the proceeds to the bank account for his personal use and then on a regular basis, from November 2013 until August 2022, he began to sell securities in the client’s brokerage account, transferring the sales proceeds to the bank account, and using it for personal expenses, the complaint said, adding that he also withdrew funds from the account and drafted checks for his benefit.
Thayer’s scheme was uncovered in August 2022 when the client was contacted by the IRS about the bank account that Thayer had opened in her name, according to the release from the Warren County prosecutor. By that time, Thayer had stolen about $1,310,605 from the client and used the funds for personal expenses including a down payment on his home, mortgage payments, car loans, credit card expenses, as well as the purchase of a “tiny house” in Colorado for a family member, the prosecutor said.
He was fired by LPL in late 2022 and barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in February for failing to respond to its requests for information.
Thayer began his career with H.D. Vest Investment Services in 2010, according to BrokerCheck. He moved to Sagepoint Financial Inc. in 2012, left in 2014 for Parkland Securities LLC and joined LPL in 2020.