January 21, 2010 - Daniel R. Siddons, 38, of West Chester, PA, was sentenced today to 180 months in prison for running a scheme to defraud elderly and unsophisticated individuals of approximately $1.3 million. Siddons had been a financial advisor to many of his victims when he worked at Mellon Bank/Dreyfus Investment Services Co. and First Union/Wachovia Securities Inc., and was still employed by Wachovia Securities when he began to solicit money from his victims. He used the mails, commercial carriers, and fax to take the individuals’ money, often from annuity or retirement accounts, and provided his victims with false statements, letters, and interest checks indicating that they had made an interest-earning investment that was safe and guaranteed. Siddons used most of the money obtained from the victims to fund a high-end lifestyle, investing very little into a real estate investment.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Paul S. Diamond ordered Siddons to pay restitution in the amount of $1,309,546.36 plus interest, and to serve a five year period of supervised release.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has been assigned to Assistant United States Attorneys Mary Futcher and Ashley Lunkenheimer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment