The 5 Worst Advisor Crime Cases of 2022

Slideshow December 21, 2022 at 03:10 PM Share & Print

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While 2022 had its share of advisors caught committing fraud and other financial crimes, the year was also marked by a few cases in which advisors, brokers and, in one case, another type of employee at a financial services firm were charged with crimes of an entirely different nature.

In the gallery are five of the worst criminal cases in the advisory industry from the past year that aren’t fraud-related.

Jeff Berman

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5. Advisor Caught on Camera Flinging Drink, Racist Insults

Broker James Iannazzo was fired by Merrill Lynch in January after he was captured on video throwing a drink and swearing at employees at a Robeks smoothie shop in Connecticut.

The video, shared widely on social media, showed him calling one teenage employee an "immigrant loser" and refusing to leave the shop.

Iannazzo turned himself in to the police, telling them he was upset after his son had a serious allergic reaction to a smoothie from the shop. He was arrested and charged with intimidation based on bigotry or bias in the second degree, breach of peace in the second degree and criminal trespass in the first degree.

In April, a judge placed Iannazzo on probation for a year. In August, he settled a civil lawsuit filed by one of the employees, paying $7,500.

He was hired by Aegis Capital in March to serve as a broker and registered representative.

(Image: Fairfield Police Department)

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4. Morgan Stanley Advisor Charged With Stalking Ex-Girlfriend

Gary T. Guglielmo, 49, a veteran advisor and broker who had worked for Morgan Stanley in Boca Raton, Florida, since 2009, was fired by the wirehouse on Aug. 8. Four days earlier, the former rep was arrested on suspicion of stalking his ex-girlfriend, in violation of a temporary protection order, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County court records.

In July, Guglielmo’s ex-girlfriend Julia Wissner secured a restraining order against him, according to court records. But Wissner alleged that he called her about 20 times from a “no caller ID” phone number on Aug. 2 and threatened to “bankrupt, ruin and humiliate her in court until she was left on one leg,” according to his arrest record.

Guglielmo was charged Aug. 4 with aggravated stalking and obstructing justice/witness tampering, both felonies, as well as contempt of court by violating an injunction providing protection to his ex-girlfriend, who had accused him of domestic violence. The latter is a misdemeanor.

(Image: Courtesy of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)

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3. Advisor Charged With Dealing in Child Porn

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards imposed an interim suspension of the CFP certification on a former registered broker and advisor who was terminated by Pruco Securities in May after he was arrested by Delaware State Police and charged with five counts of dealing in child pornography.

The CFP Board announced the interim suspension on Aug. 12. The group noted that the action went into effect on Aug. 5, and that it had filed a motion for the interim suspension order on July 11.

On April 28, at about 8:46 a.m., Delaware State Police troopers and Department of Justice investigators — assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force — arrested Jason D. Cooke of Clayton, Delaware, the state police announced on April 29.

Cooke was “taken into custody without incident” and was charged with the five child porn counts in the Kent County (Delaware) Court of Common Pleas (Case No. 2204014557).

(Image: Delaware State Police)

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2. Morgan Stanley Broker, 90, Arrested for Shooting Business Partner

Morgan Stanley terminated Leonard David Bernstein, a 90-year-old broker, on July 1, one day after he was arrested on suspicion of shooting his business partner, according to Oklahoma County Detention Center and Oklahoma City Police Department documents.

Bernstein allegedly entered his firm’s office building on Waterford Boulevard in Oklahoma City on July 30 and shot Chris Bayouth, 61, several times with a handgun, according to police.

Bernstein was released on $50,000 bail, according to the Oklahoma City jail blotter. An initial criminal complaint was filed against him in Oklahoma County District Court on July 1, saying there was probable cause to charge him with shooting with intent to kill, a felony.

Bernstein died on July 28, according to a spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma City and an obituary in The Oklahoman. The cause of his death was not immediately clear.

(Image: Oklahoma County Detention Center)

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1. RIA Employee Charged With Murder, Could Get Death Penalty

Ramy Hany Mounir Fahim, an employee at LPL Network RIA firm Pence Wealth Management, was arrested April 19 and charged with with special circumstances murders for allegedly stabbing his co-worker Griffin Cuomo, 23, and Cuomo’s roommate, Jonathan Bahm, 23.

At about 6:30 a.m. that morning, Anaheim Police Dispatch “received reports of a possible assault in progress occurring inside an apartment in the 2100 block of E. Katella Avenue” in Anaheim, California, according to the Anaheim Police Department.

The “special circumstances of lying in wait and multiple murders” make Fahim “eligible for the death penalty,” according to Todd Spitzer, district attorney for Orange County.

Fahim was charged with eight felony counts, including two counts of murder and two enhancements each of lying in wait, multiple murders and the personal use of a deadly weapon, Spitzer said in a news release.

The next hearing for Fahim is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 10, 2023, according to the website of the Superior Court of California for Orange County.

(Image: Anaheim Police Department)

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