Commonwealth Financial | Investor's Watchblog

Friendly Neighborhood Stockbroker Steals Hundreds of Thousands from Elderly Customers

On April 29, 2010, in Commonwealth Financial, Firms, Investment Advisers, SEC, Scams, Securities Industry (general), Senior Citizens, Texas, by IW Dog

First, your friendly neighborhood stockbroker, the one who everyone trusts because he is such a nice guy, is not necessarily equal to the trust. Unless you’ve done in-depth due diligence on the broker, you know absolutely nothing worth knowing about him.

There are fewer than 30,000 people in Corsicana, Texas, a little town about an hour south of Dallas on Interstate 45. Commonwealth Financial stockbroker Susan G. Slovak was likely well-known in town. Elderly clients trusted her to take care of their retirement nest eggs. A recent enforcement case from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Slovak breached that trust and that Slovak’s supposed supervisor at Commonwealth, Beth R. Chapman, did not fulfill her duty to keep an eye on Slovak. According to the SEC: (more…)