German Nino, Wire Fraud, Florida 2020

MIAMI, FL – In a shocking turn of events, a former UBS Financial Advisor has been charged with defrauding over $5 million from his clients.

According to a federal information, German Nino, a resident of Broward County, was a financial advisor working at a branch office of UBS Financial Services Inc. in Miami from 2012 to 2020. Nino oversaw and managed UBS investment accounts for various customers, including three victims who were related and had various investment accounts at UBS.

It is alleged that from May 2014 to February 2020, Nino made a total of 62 unauthorized transfers from three UBS accounts belonging to the victims, which totaled $5,833,218.59. To accomplish the wire fraud scheme, Nino made materially false and fraudulent statements to his victims and concealed and omitted material facts, including misrepresenting the true performance, balance, and rate of return of the accounts he managed.

Nino also allegedly forged the signature of his clients on documents purporting to authorize transfers out of the accounts, prepared a fraudulent land purchase contract, and forged a victim’s signature on the contract. Furthermore, he removed one of the victim’s email from their UBS email account profile so that the victim would not receive email notifications from UBS about unauthorized transfers.

Nino made his initial appearance in federal magistrate court in Miami before United States Magistrate Lisette M. Reid on February 22, 2022.

The charges against Nino include wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, made the announcement.

The FBI Miami investigated the case, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Deric Zacca prosecuting it and Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Stone handling asset forfeiture.

An information contains mere allegations and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20020.

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