A former broker who was charged last year with financial fraud by bilking at least three older clients out of over $950,000 has been sentenced to four years and four months in federal prison, according to court documents and the Department of Justice.
In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston on Wednesday ordered former Loves Park, Illinois, broker Naseem Mohammed Salamah, 41, to pay restitution to the victims of $968,582.12 and two years of supervised release after his sentence is completed.
Salamah previously pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a total of more than $968,000 from the accounts of at least three clients.
The DOJ had alleged that, from at least as early as August 2017 and continuing to May 2021, he "knowingly devised, intended to devise, and participated in a scheme to defraud three of his clients."
The rep told the clients he needed to move the money to diversify their assets when, in fact, Salamah instead deposited the funds into a bank account that he controlled, according to John R. Lausch Jr., U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Salamah then used the money for his own benefit and without the clients' knowledge or consent, Lausch alleged in the felony information he filed with the court on Sept. 28.
"Naseem is very sorry for what he's done," Howard Rosenburg, a partner at the law firm Kopecky Schumacher Rosenburg in Chicago who has been representing Salamah, told ThinkAdvisor by email on Monday. "He's made a serious commitment to making amends and getting his life back on track," according to Rosenburg.
Funds Spent on Vacations, Luxury Cars
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a separate civil enforcement action against Salamah, making similar allegations, on Sept. 28 in the same court as the DOJ action.
As alleged in the SEC complaint, Salamah chose the three clients as his victims because he did not think they would pay close attention to their brokerage account statements.
