Ex-LPL Rep Sentenced to 2½ Years in Prison for Stealing From Retired Client
The former broker was also ordered to pay $639,580 in restitution and a special assessment of $100.
A former LPL Financial broker who was barred from the industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission in August after he allegedly stole more than $600,000 from a retired 73-year-old client has been sentenced to 30 months in prison, according to a judgment filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
LPL did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday about the former LPL rep’s sentencing.
Matthew O. Clason, 40, of Cheshire, Connecticut, was sentenced Tuesday by District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford. The 2½-year sentence will be followed by two years of supervised release. Clason was also ordered to pay $639,580 in restitution and a special assessment of $100.
On May 12, Clason pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. He was released on bail and is required to report to prison on Feb. 28, 2022, according to Leonard C Boyle, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut.
According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website, court documents and statements made in court, Clason was a rep and broker for LPL from 2016 to 2020. Starting in about 2015, Clason provided investment services to a 73-year-old Connecticut resident who had at least five investment accounts with him.
In January 2018, Clason and the client opened a joint bank account. From 2018 to August 2020, Clason transferred more than $668,000 from the client’s investment accounts into the joint bank account and, without the client’s knowledge or authorization, withdrew more than $621,000 in cash from the bank account for his own personal use.
Clason also transferred $5,000 directly from the joint bank account to his personal bank account, and made two transfers from the joint bank account to pay his own credit card bill, according to the court documents and statements made in court.