UPDATE: This story was revised below on May 7, 2024 with comments from Saw’s attorney, Keith S. Barnett.
A Pleasantville investment adviser imposed herself on the life of an elderly, incapacitated client, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and transferred $2.4 million from his holdings to her own accounts.
The SEC accused Clarice Saw, 56, of using a fraudulent power of attorney document to defraud an 87-year-old New York man, in a civil complaint filed July 28 in U.S. District Court, Manhattan.
Saw began representing the retired janitor in 2020 when she was working for Citigroup Global Markets. The complaint does not name the customer but a court filing in a related case identifies him as Fusheng Jiang.
Jiang could not speak, read or understand English, according to the SEC, and Saw, who shares the same ethnic background, speaks his native language as well as English.
After she became his broker, she became involved in other aspects of his life, such as accompanying him to medical appointments.
Jiang had inherited money from his wife’s life insurance policy, and Saw knew that he did not have any immediate family, according to the complaint.
In 2020, she allegedly persuaded Jiang to sign a document that she presented as a health care proxy but was actually a broader power of attorney.
In September 2021, she resigned from Citigroup, went to work for Cetera Investment Services, and persuaded Jiang to move his account there.
The following November, Jiang was severely injured, hospitalized for a couple of weeks and transferred to a nursing home for seven months.
Saw knew that Jiang had an account with TD Bank, and while he was incapacitated she allegedly used the power of attorney to add her name to Jiang’s bank account as a joint owner and then opened a second TD account in her name only.
She posted a note on Jiang’s brokerage account stating that due to his health he wanted to fully liquidate the account, the SEC says, and have the cash deposited in his TD account.
Unbeknownst to Jiang, the SEC complaint states, Saw sold $1.7 million in securities and transferred the cash to his TD account and then transferred the funds to her TD account. A few days later she liquidated the remaining $730,000 in his brokerage account, transferred the funds to his TD account and from there to her TD account.
Shortly thereafter, the SEC alleges, she moved $2.4 million from her TD account to various bank and brokerage accounts in her name.
Jiang, the complaint states, never authorized the transfers and was unaware of the moves.
Saw used a portion of the allegedly misappropriated money to buy a car, make mortgage payments, withdraw $46,000 from ATMs, and purchase securities.
“While numerous media outlets picked up on the complaint filed by the SEC against my client, Ms. Saw,” attorney Keith S. Barnett stated in an email, “the SEC may have jumped the gun on this case by accusing Ms. Saw of defrauding an elderly client without sufficient proof.
“From the outset, Ms. Saw has denied any wrongdoing and has vigorously fought to clear her name. Significantly, after engaging in recent discovery, we are confident that the SEC will be unable to prove their claims of wrongdoing. We look very much forward to our day in court, as nobody should be wrongfully accused in any court of law, nor should anybody have their reputation tarnished while the matter is still pending.”
Barnett and attorney Steven K. Frankel also represented Saw in a lawsuit she brought against the SEC in March in Manhattan federal court, seeking to stop the agency from subpoenaing records and compelling her to testify in a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney”s Office in Brooklyn.
Saw denied any civil or criminal wrongdoing, according to an affirmation filed by Frankel, and “maintains that she had acted properly during the course of her employment as a financial adviser with Cetera Investment Services LLC and CitiBank.”
Frankel said a portion of Jiang’s monies were gifted to Saw “as a result of her close friendship and long-term care of Mr. Jiang,” pursuant to a duly executed power of attorney.
A week later, Saw dismissed the lawsuit, and since then, no criminal case has been filed.
Saw resigned from Cetera in May 2021, according to a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority BrokerCheck report, as the firm was “looking into allegations of usage of an undisclosed POA (power of attorney) for a client.”
In the civil complaint, the SEC accused Saw of two violations of anti-fraud securities regulations. The agency is asking the court to order her to disgorge all ill-gotten gains and to pay penalties.
