A former Connecticut financial advisor pleaded guilty and was indicted today for stealing more than $600,000 from an elderly client’s account for personal use, according to a news release from United States Attorney Office, District of Connecticut.
Matthew O. Clason, 39, of Cheshire pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud related to his misappropriation of the client’s funds, according to the release.
Clason was an investment advisor and a registered representative of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corporation, and then LPL Financial. According to his BrokerCheck profile, he was with Lincoln Financial from 2007 to 2016 and joined LPL in 2016.
Around 2015, Clason provided investment services to a 73-year-old Connecticut resident, who had at least five investments accounts with Clason, according to the release, and in January 2018, Clason and the victim opened a joint bank account. Without the client’s knowledge Clason allegedly transferred more than $668,000 from the client’s accounts into the joint bank account and withdrew more than $621,000 in cash from the bank account for his personal use.
He further transferred $5,000 directly from the joint bank account to his personal bank account and made two transfers from the joint bank account to pay his personal credit card, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Clason was fired by LPL in August 2020 for maintaining a joint bank account with the customer and “engaged in liquidations of securities in customer's Firm account, transferred funds to joint bank account, and withdrew funds,” according to his BrokerCheck profile. It also showed that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority barred Clason in September 2020 for refusing to provide documents and information in connection with its investigation into the allegations into his termination form LPL.
Clason is released on bond pending sentencing, which is scheduled for August 5, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, the release said.