The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sanctioned a former New Rochelle financial adviser for embezzling funds from investors.
The SEC accepted a settlement offer from Adam Belardino on June 16, admitting to the charges and consenting to the sanctions.
“The Commission deems it appropriate and in the public interest to impose the sanctions agreed to in … Belardino’s offer,” the SEC stated in an order instituting administrative proceedings.
The SEC action is the culmination of a checkered history.
Belardino, 38, followed in the footsteps and worked side-by-side with his grandfather, Gerard Turtora, as a MetLife insurance salesman and financial planner.
Belardino worked for Barnum Financial Group in Elmsford, from 2007 to early 2019.
In 2017, he received a Milli Award for recognition as an outstanding young (millennial) professional. The Millis were created by Westfair Communications, the publisher of the Westchester County Business Journal.
Barnum fired him in 2019.
Several customers complained, from 2017 to 2019, that he had engaged in excessive trading, misrepresented the value of their accounts, and failed to comply with their requests, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The claims were settled for more than $1.6 million.
In 2019, Belardino formed Maddox Group, a Manhattan marketing and consulting firm.
In 2021, FINRA suspended him as a financial adviser for refusing to testify about why Barnum fired him.
Last year, federal prosecutors indicted him for stealing funds from clients, including from a New Rochelle woman, a close friend of his mother, who he had persuaded to shift funds from Barnum to his firm.
He had used investor funds to pay for the operating costs of his business and for personal expenses, such as a $7,100-a-month apartment at Central Park South, Manhattan.
He pled guilty to wire fraud and making false statements to a governmental agency. In February, he was sentenced to prison for 42 months and ordered to pay $501,500 in restitution.
He currently resides at USP Lewisburg, a medium security prison in central Pennsylvania.
The SEC administrative action piggybacks on the federal criminal case.
The agency barred Belardino from associating with any investment adviser, broker, dealer, municipal securities adviser or dealer, transfer agent or nationally recognized statistical rating organization.
If he wants to get back in the business one day, he must demonstrate that he has complied with the SEC order and paid all penalties, fees and awards assessed against him by regulatory agencies and the courts.
