A former hybrid advisor from Long Island, N.Y., was charged in federal court with bilking his clients out of more than $400,000 to pay for gambling debts and credit card bills.    

Apostolos Pitsironis, 52, of Dix Hill, was arraigned in federal court in Central Islip Wednesday by telephone and videoconference on a complaint charging him with wire fraud, according to a release by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

The complaint alleged that in 2009, Apostolos, who worked in the Melville, N.Y., office of RBC Capital Markets, began managing the investments of a Long Island married couple. The complaint said between May 2, 2019, and June 11, 2019, Pitsironis initiated 22 transfers totaling about $411,000 from one of the victims’ investment accounts at the firm to a bank account in his own name at Janney Montgomery Scott, where, according to his BrokerCheck profile, he had been working since December 2018, 

Pitsironis, the complaint said, lied to the firm that the other victim owned the bank account receiving the funds and had authorized the transfer of funds to that account. Pitsironis then transferred the stolen funds to other bank accounts that he controlled and used the stolen money to pay for his family’s personal expenses, including casino gambling debts, credit card bills and the lease for a luxury car, the complaint alleged.

“As alleged, the defendant stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors to pay his personal debts, violating the trust they had placed in him to manage their money safely and honestly,” Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Seth D. DuCharme said in a statement.  “This office is committed to protecting the investing public from corrupt financial advisors like the defendant who put greed before their clients’ best interests.”  

Pitsironis had previously worked for Janney and left in May 2008 after seven years before returning in December 2018, after stints at RBC, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley, where he began his career in October 1996, according to his BrokerCheck profile. 

He was fired by Janney in June 2019 and barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in September 2019.