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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowChristopher Turean, 43, of Fishers, has been sentenced to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and filing a false tax return, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday
A former financial planner at Carmel-based Valeo Financial Advisors, Turean stole $4,692,500 from a single victim, according to investigators. He also failed to report the illicit income on his taxes, filing false returns that concealed about $1.7 million in taxes owed.
The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Matthew P. Brookman. Brookman also ordered that Turean be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for three years following his release from federal prison and pay $6,417,746 in restitution.
According to Turean’s public disclosure information on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Turean worked for Valeo from September 2012 until February 2022, when he was discharged from the firm over allegations of misappropriation of customer funds.
The IRS and the U.S. Postal Service disclosed in February 2022 that they were investigating Turean regarding misappropriation of customer funds.
According to the plea agreement, an individual identified only as Victim 1 became a client of Turean’s in 2015. “Initially, the defendant invested Victim 1’s money prudently, frequently in real estate,” the agreement says.
Starting around July 2019, the plea agreement says, Turean began transferring money out of the victim’s investment account and into a separate bank account affiliated with an entity called SCNT LLC, an entity Turean had established. The victim approved the transfers because he believed Turean was investing the funds on his behalf.
But instead of investing that money, the plea agreement says, Turean spent it on gambling and paying down a home equity loan.
“Throughout the entire scheme to defraud, the defendant did not invest any of the money in the SCNT account for Victim 1 on real estate or anything else despite Victim 1’s belief that the money would be invested by the defendant,” the plea agreement says.
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This is a recurring problem with financial advisors who can invest your money into anything including private equity, real estate, promissory notes, and more. For your protection only allow your advisor to invest your money into stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange traded funds that you can look up online.
Thats interesting. He owes taxes, $1.7 mil, on money that he stole from someone else. I guess the government collects taxes even on money that was obtained illegally. I wonder how much the victim in this case will eventually get back.
Jeff:
That’s correct. He was charged with filing a false tax return because he didn’t report the embezzled money as income and thus paid no tax on that income, according to prosecutors. This point is mentioned in more detail in our original story: https://www.ibj.com/articles/former-financial-planner-to-plead-guilty-in-4-7m-fraud-case
I wonder if anyone in this situation actually does report income of this sort.
–Susan Orr
Checks out, Valeo is a sleazy firm.
Four years is less than $1,000,000 per year.