A former financial advisor previously barred from the industry by FINRA will spend three years in prison for defrauding clients out of more than $4 million.
According to FINRA records, Ashburn, Va.-based Andrew Corbman registered in the industry at RAF Financial Corporation in 1994, with short stints at Morgan Stanley, FSC Securities, Kovack Securities and Newbridge Securities, among others.
According to FINRA, his disciplinary record is checkered with dozens of settlements alleging “unsuitability, common law fraud, breach of contract, negligent supervision, breach of fiduciary duty and overconcentration” in particular securities. The brokerage regulator barred him in 2016 after he refused on-the-record testimony related to his termination from a prior firm.
After being barred by FINRA, Corbman affiliated with an unnamed national estate planning company, offering financial advice for clients on issues ranging from trusts and annuities to life insurance.
Corbman worked with two individuals and two couples, but never revealed to them that FINRA had kicked him out of the financial services industry (or that he’d filed for bankruptcy in 2015).
Corbman asked the clients to loan him money or roll over existing loans they’d made to him so he could improve their returns. He eventually convinced them to loan him about $4.2 million. He said he’d invest the money in stock market options trading, promising high returns, a 30% annual interest rate and a cut of his own profits.
To entice clients to loan him the money, Corbman would lie about his past trading performance, offering at least two clients a document falsely claiming to show his investment results from 2021 that claimed “112 wins, 82% win history and a 90% average return.”
In reality, Corbman suffered “substantial losses” in his trading history from 2019 onward. Corbman lost over $4 million of clients’ funds, returning only $120,000 to one of his victims.
According to the Justice Department, Corbman knew the risks and how much money he’d lost for clients, but concealed it from them, and even misled them with the false claims of trading wins in the past.
By 2022, Corbman’s creditors wanted him to repay the expired loan agreements, but Corbman claimed he couldn’t because of trading losses. He eventually filed for bankruptcy again, trying to discharge the $4 million in losses. As a result of the fraud, at least one client had to mortgage their home and postpone retirement to make up for the losses.
According to the Justice Department, in addition to the prison sentence, Corbman will pay $4.15 million in restitution to his victims.
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