The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred a former registered representative and investment advisor rep with Equitable Advisors for misappropriating more than $9.8 million from an elderly client.
According to the SEC's complaint, between 2022 and 2025, Ejiro Ode Okuma, 43, of Smyrna, Georgia, misappropriated more than $9 million from the client "who relied almost exclusively on Okuma for all financial matters," engaging in a variety of conduct that operated as a fraud and deceit on his client.
Okuma's BrokerCheck profile states that the SEC alleges that Okuma "began his fraudulent scheme in 2022 by stealing approximately $900,000 from the client, who relied almost exclusively on Okuma for financial matters, and the estate of the client's recently deceased sister."
In 2023, Okuma "began transferring securities from various brokerage accounts held by the client that Okuma managed to a new and unauthorized brokerage account," according to BrokerCheck. "Okuma had created the new account purportedly for the benefit of a trust in the client's name."
In reality, "Okuma sold securities held in the account and used most of the sales proceeds to support his own expensive lifestyle," including to build a multimillion-dollar residence, purchase vehicles and buy vacation homes.
At around the same time that Okuma opened the unauthorized brokerage account, "he obtained signatory authority on the client's primary bank account," BrokerCheck states. "Using his access to and control over the brokerage and bank accounts, Okuma ultimately misappropriated an additional $8.94 million from the client."
Okuma facilitated the fraud by, among other means, "electronically impersonating the client to access the brokerage account, forging the client's signature on checks, and transferring funds from the client's accounts to Okuma's own bank account and other accounts over which he had control," BrokerCheck states.
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