A former Merrill Lynch broker has agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $1.9 million for robbing at least three clients of more than $1.7 million, according to a settlement signed by an Illinois federal judge on Friday.
In a parallel criminal action, Marcus Boggs, 51, of Chicago, was sentenced to 42 months in prison in August and ordered to pay restitution of more than $3 million for a 10-year scheme that defrauded at least eight clients between 2008 and 2018. That included stealing $800,000 from the victim of a wrongful imprisonment settlement, the complaint said.
Boggs consented to entry of a final judgment and was ordered to pay disgorgement in the amount of $1,719,493, plus prejudgment interest in the amount of $195,458, which also satisfied the restitution order entered against him in the criminal case, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, Boggs engaged in a scheme to misappropriate and misuse the assets of three of his advisory clients to pay his own personal expenses.
The complaint said that from 2016 to 2018 Boggs made more than 200 illegal transfers from the clients’ accounts to his personal credit card account, stealing more than $1.7 million by making hundreds of unauthorized payments. Boggs also sold securities held in the accounts and used the proceeds to fund the unauthorized transfers. He also used cash in the clients’ accounts to fund unauthorized transfers.
Boggs, the complaint said, did not have discretion over the accounts and the clients did not give him permission to trade in their account or liquidate assets. The complaint said Merrill Lynch discovered Boggs’s theft in 2018, placed him on administrative leave in November 2018 and fired him the following month.
Boggs, who had been with Merrill Lynch for 12 years, managed more than $40 million in assets held by more than 70 clients. He was an active member of Chicago’s philanthropic community and was a regular at a variety of fundraising events for prominent Chicago cultural institutions. “This allowed Boggs to present himself as a socially minded financial professional, mingle with wealthy individuals, and have a platform for meeting potential clients,” the complaint said.
The complaint said Boggs also had a penchant for international travel, and the money he was stealing from clients was supporting his jet-setting lifestyle. He frequently vacationed in Europe, South America, Canada, and the Caribbean, staying at luxury hotels, the complaint said.
Boggs’ victims in the criminal case included Shainne Sharp, who received $5 million in a 2014 settlement after being wrongfully convicted of murder in the “Dixmoor 5” case and turned to Boggs to manage the money, according to the complaint. The case involved five teenagers who were falsely convicted of the 1991 rape and murder of 14-year-old girl in Illinois.