Corporate & Securities Law

Rhonda Breard To Face The Music In Alleged Ponzi Scam

By Steven Caruso

To borrow from Bob Dylan, ?the times they are-a changin? for Kirkland securities broker Rhonda Breard. Breard, a former broker for ING Financial Partners, faces 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine for the single count of mail fraud that federal prosecutors charged her with last week.

State regulators estimate that Breard may have scammed nearly $8 million from investors in a Ponzi scheme that allegedly had been going on since at least 2007.

According to prosecutors, instead of placing investors? money in insurance and financial investments, Breard used the funds for her own profit and, in turn, allegedly gave phony statements to clients.

On March 10, in what is likely to be a slew of future lawsuits against Breard, James and Shelley Heath sued the disgraced broker, alleging they lost their life savings to her scam. The Heaths also sued one of Breard?s associates, Colleen Brown, and Breard?s former employer, ING Financial Partners.

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, claims ING licensed Breard and Brown and then failed to properly supervise them. The suit also alleges that ING has a history of failing to supervise brokers, paying ?huge fines and/or state-ordered restitution to clients? over the years.

Full post as published by Representing Investors on March 29, 2010 (boomark / email).