On January 3, 2017, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced that former Morgan Stanley financial advisor Barry Connell had been arrested and charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for allegedly using his position as a financial adviser at Morgan Stanley to defraud multiple clients out of at least $5 million over a one-year period. (“Former Financial Adviser At Global Bank Charged In Manhattan Federal Court With Multimillon-Dollar Scheme To Defraud Clients”).
According to the press release that announced the indictment and arrest of financial advisor Connell, “as alleged, Barry Connell used his clients’ bank accounts as his own, siphoning off millions of dollars to pay for his extravagant lifestyle, including a country club membership and private jet expenses.”
According to the allegations in the indictment that was unsealed in the Manhattan federal court, from December 2015 to November 2016, Mr. Connell effected numerous unauthorized transactions from five accounts belonging to a single family of Morgan Stanley clients, and as a result, defrauded the clients of at least approximately $5 million.
It is alleged that, in some instances, Mr. Connell effected the fraudulent transactions by submitting Morgan Stanley forms falsely stating that he had received client instructions authorizing wire transfers to third parties for the client’s benefit, when in fact he had not received client authorization and the wire transfers were for financial advisor Connell’s own benefit. In other instances, Mr. Connell effected the fraudulent transactions by using one client’s checks, which had been intended only to pay the client’s bills, to instead pay for his own expenses including a year’s rent for a house near Las Vegas, country club membership fees, and private jet expenses.
Financial advisor Connell also allegedly paid bills for a credit card account in his spouse’s name, and made payments for his own benefit to automobile dealerships, an entertainment company, and a yacht company. Financial advisor Connell’s registration records indicate that, at the time of the events in question, he had been associated with the Morgan Stanley branch office located in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Copies of both the U.S. Department of Justice press release and the indictment of financial advisor Connell can be found at: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-financial-adviser-global-bank-charged-manhattan-federal-court-multimillon-dollar.
If you are an individual or institutional investor who has any concerns about your investments with financial advisor Barry Connell or Morgan Stanley, please contact us for a no-cost and no-obligation evaluation of your specific facts and circumstances. You may have a viable claim for recovery of your investment losses by filing an individual securities arbitration claim with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).