Port St. Lucie broker pleads guilty for stealing from clients.

The Palm Beach Post reports that Paul Elvidge, a broker formerly with Seacoast Investor Services and Cape Securities, pleaded guilty on embezzlement charges in Federal Court.  He reportedly stole over $1 million dollars.

First thing I noticed when I went to Brokercheck was that there are two people named Paul Elvidge, although one is Paul Elvidge, Sr.  Assuming that Brokercheck is accurate, and there are two people (who appear to be closely related), Paul Sr. was sanctioned by the State of Florida because he failed to establish written supervisory procedures for the Seacoast.  He defaulted on an administrative complaint and the State denied his application to be a broker.

Paul (or Paul Jr I’m assuming) has a different CRD# and different allegations.  He is alleged to have wired funds from customer accounts to his personal account.  The customers were unaware of the wire transfers.  I’m thinking that the failure to have written supervisory procedures may have had something to do with his ability to accomplish this feat.  Well, I’m thinking this Paul is going to do some time at Club Fed.

I hope that there was some insurance somewhere that paid back these unwitting investors.  But remember folks, read your statements!  Open your mail!  Ask questions and don’t buy the answer, “Oh, it’s just a computer error.”  Be vigilant.

Some friendly advice from one lawyer from Jupiter, Palm Beach  County, Florida.  I’m Marc Dobin.

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