Financial Advisor Gets 3 Years for Bilking Elderly Woman

A Raleigh financial adviser was sentenced to 36 months in prison and ordered to pay $425,694 in restitution for stealing from an elderly female client in an elaborate scheme to bilk her of nearly $3 million.

Harold " Hal " Blondeau, 65, a former adviser with Morgan Keegan, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Greenville to more than 15 months in prison after he was charged with investor advisement fraud and making and subscribing a false tax return, according to federal court records..

Blondeau, according to federal court documents, used his role as an investment adviser to Martha B. Capps, 83, a Raleigh woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease, to gain access to funds held in trust, then used the money to pay for his own personal expenses — including spending $24,000 on wine and a beach house.

Blondeau's plea and sentencing came more than two years after lawyers representing Capps filed suit in state court against Blondeau; his son, R.J. Blondeau ; Florida lawyer Neal Knight, and Knight's two daughters. The group conspired to take an estimated $3 million that Capps had inherited in 1989, according to the lawsuit.

Only Blondeau was brought to federal court on criminal charges. He pleaded guilty to taking $531,000 out of the nearly $3 million that Capps' lawyers contend was stolen.

Full Article and Source;
Former Investor Gets 3 Years for Bilking Elderly Woman