A former UBS advisor faces up to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding a client family of more than $5.8 million between 2014 and 2020.

German Nino, 57, of Weston, Fla., worked for UBS in Coral Gables, Fla., before he left in 2020 amid accusations from a wealthy client couple that he had confessed to taking money out of their accounts. 

He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Miami on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Nino was charged with taking about  $5.8 million from the client couple through 62 unauthorized transfers between May 2014 and February 2020. The couple had $11 million invested with UBS through Nino.

When he began making the transfers out of the accounts in 2014, he sometimes sold the clients’ securities at the same time and put the funds in a bank account that he kept separate from his marital accounts, according to court documents.

“Nino spent approximately $4.6 million of the stolen money on several women with whom he had romantic relationships,” the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint it filed against Nino in January. “His purchases ranged from small gifts and vacations, to luxury cars, private school tuition, and an apartment in Colombia.”

As part of the scheme, he lied to the couple about their account balances and rates of returns, as well as forged their signatures to authorize account transfers, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. In one case, Nino put together a fake land purchase contract and forged a client’s signature on it to make it appear the client was purchasing land in Colombia, prosecutors said. He also altered UBS account records, removing the clients’ email address from the profile so that that bank could not alert them about the money transfers.

The SEC said in its complaint that Nino submitted fraudulent authorization letters to UBS when the transfers were for $100,000 or more.

The commission said the client’s son discovered the gaps in the accounting and confronted Nino, eliciting the confession.

“Eventually, Nino confessed to the son that he had stolen [the] client’s money, promising that he would pay [the client] back with a signing bonus he would receive when he joined a new firm,” the SEC said.

The clients told UBS, which investigated and demanded an interview from Nino in February 2020. “Nino resigned instead,” said the SEC complaint.

Nino was also ordered by the court to disgorge ill-gotten gains and interest.

Attempts to reach Nino were unsuccessful. UBS had not responded to an email request for comment by press time.