The former chief compliance officer of a registered broker-dealer in Woodbury, New York was sentenced to six months in prison for stealing money from overseas investors who thought they were investing in Dell, Berkshire Hathaway, and BlackRock.
William Quigley, 52, was Director of Compliance of Trident Partners Ltd. on Long Island from 2004 until 2014. He also acted as the firm’s Anti-Money Laundering officer.
He lives in Seaford, New York.
Quigley pleaded guilty in federal court in Central Islip, New York in March 2016 to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies. He was indicted in mid 2015.
The court Friday ordered him to spend six months in prison followed by a year of home confinement and three years of supervised release. The court earlier ordered him to forfeit nearly $357,000.
Quigley also reached a settlement with the SEC Friday for violating the securities laws. In an administrative action, the SEC waived civil penalties because of the criminal sentence and forfeiture.
But the agency barred Quigley from all aspects of the securities business.
Quigley’s two brothers — Michael, 47, and Brian, 44 — live in the Philippines and directly solicited overseas investors.
The three brothers said they were brokers at firms registered with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA). They also told investors their money would go into blue chip companies and funds, including Dell, Berkshire Hathaway, and BlackRock.
“In reality,” the DOJ said, “Quigley and his co-conspirators were not registered brokers and did not invest the funds as promised.”
Quigley opened several bank accounts in New York to receive the investors’ funds. He “transferred more than $500,000 of the $800,000 investor funds from these accounts to accounts in the Philippines,” the DOJ said.
His brothers “handled the solicitation aspects of the scheme,” the SEC said, “while he funneled investor money out of the accounts to his brothers and himself.”
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Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.
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