Ex-Vanguard Broker Charged With Killing Girlfriend Is Suspended by CFP Board

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards said Tuesday it suspended the CFP certification of a former Vanguard broker who allegedly murdered his girlfriend in Bogota, Colombia.

The interim suspension against John Poulos of Colleyville, Texas, was effective as of Feb. 17, CFP Board said.

According to a CFP Board news release and multiple Colombian and U.S. news reports, Poulos was charged in Bogota with femicide (the intentional killing of a woman or girl for her gender) and obstruction of justice on Jan. 26 in Bogota.

Poulos was registered as a broker with Vanguard Marketing Corporation in Scottsdale, Arizona from April 2022 until last month, according to his report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website.

He was dismissed by Vanguard on Jan. 26 because he was “under review for being charged with multiple serious non-financial crimes outside of the United States, including femicide, in violation of Vanguard’s professional conduct policy,” according to a disclosure on his report on BrokerCheck.

Vanguard did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its former broker on Wednesday.

Prior to Vanguard, Poulos was registered as a broker with Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee in 2009 and then again from 2011-2020, in Franklin, Wisconsin.

Body in Suitcase

The victim was Valentina Trespalacios, a 21-year-old DJ in Bogota, according to The City Paper Bogota. Poulos, 35, was in a long-distance relationship with her for more than eight months and arrived in Colombia on the night of Jan. 19, according to the report, which cited the chief investigator of the Colombian attorney general’s office.

Video footage that captured Poulos arriving near the exit doors of International Arrivals at the Colombia airport showed him hauling a blue suitcase that was believed to be the same one into which he dumped Trespalacios’ body less than 72 hours later, the report said.

Poulos took an Uber car to his Airbnb apartment in Bogota’s Chico Navarra neighborhood entered the building at 8:53 p.m. Trespalacios, a student of international business at UNINPAHU, arrived there the following evening, the report said.

Trespalacios died at about 9 a.m. on Jan. 22 by “mechanical asphyxia,” the report said, citing the findings of the national coroner. Poulos was seen in video footage leaving the apartment at 9:12 a.m. with two black bags believed to belong to Trespalacios.

At 9:51 a.m. that morning, Poulos entered the apartment with a shopping cart into which he placed a blue suitcase, partially covered in a grey blanket, the report said. The blanket was believed to have covered the victim’s face because her entire body didn’t fit into the suitcase, according to the report.

Street camera footage from Channel 1 in Fontibon showed Poulos’ Volkswagen parking at 3:05 p.m. next to a trash dumpster. At 3:08 p.m., his car left the area, which the report said was adjacent to the airport’s second runway.

During his indictment, the image of the victim’s “bruised and protruding face inside the dumpster was shown by the prosecution,” the report said.

The suitcase was wrapped with black duct tape and the report said an investigator suspected that the murder was planned in advance. It was believed that Poulos threw the victim’s cellphone into a grassy field near the airport, the report said.

Gruesome images started circulating on social media after a garbage recycler discovered the body, the report said. Poulos’ personal items recovered when he was arrested at Panama’s Tocumen airport included a used roll of black industrial tape and a boarding pass to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines.

The report, again citing the investigator, said that, when Poulos returned his car, the receiving agent of the rental car company, Alamo, noticed the suspect had a “scratch mark along his left side of his face.”

Prosecutors requested a 40-year prison sentence for Poulos because femicide is considered to be one of the most severe crimes that can be committed under Colombia’s criminal code, the report added.

Interim Suspension

On Jan. 27, CFP Board’s counsel filed a motion for an interim suspension order requesting that a hearing panel of its Disciplinary and Ethics Commission issue an interim suspension order against Poulos.

After reviewing the matter, a hearing panel of the DEC determined CFP Board “demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence Poulos’ conduct poses a significant threat to the public or that his conduct significantly impinges upon the reputation of the profession and upon the CFP certification marks” and issued the order, CFP Board said in its news release.

Poulos’ right to use the CFP certification marks is suspended, “pending CFP Board’s completed investigation and possible further disciplinary proceedings,” it said.

A respondent subject to an interim suspension order must not use the CFP certification marks or state or suggest that he or she is a CFP professional while the order is in effect, CFP Board said. An interim suspension is a temporary sanction and “does not preclude CFP Board from imposing a final sanction,” it said.

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