Wade Lawrence, Securities Fraud, Texas 2016

Dallas Securities Broker Sentenced to 36 Months for Securities Fraud

Dallas, TX – Wade Lawrence, a 43-year-old securities broker, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for securities fraud, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn also ordered Lawrence to pay $1,542,966 in restitution and forfeit $126,074 in proceeds traceable to the offense, in the form of a money judgment, representing the proceeds from the sale of his residence. He was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on March 15, 2016.

Lawrence, who worked as a securities broker for Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and later Southwest Securities in Dallas, began to lose significant amounts of money in his clients’ trading accounts and his individual trading account in 2010 and 2011. He then engaged in a scheme to defraud individuals, with whom he had longstanding personal and business relationships, by offering them false investments in real estate ventures, securities, and a high-risk investment in options on the Volatility Index (VIX) on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Lawrence solicited funds from several individuals by falsely representing they would be invested in a duplex, and told other investors that their money would be invested in various securities such as Facebook and Southwest Securities. He promised returns of up to 100 percent, but only invested some of the money as represented. Instead, he spent several hundred thousand dollars of the proceeds for personal living expenses, including travel, mortgage payments on his Dallas residence, and a $10,000 piece of jewelry.

The scheme, which ran from January 2012 to September 2013, netted Lawrence approximately $2,124,000. He returned approximately $581,034 to some of the investors before being caught.

The charges were brought in connection with the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, a coalition of law enforcement, investigatory, and regulatory agencies established to combat financial crimes. The FBI investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Stokes prosecuted.

Lawrence’s scheme is a stark reminder of the importance of being cautious when investing in unregistered investments or working with unscrupulous brokers. As one victim described it, ‘I trusted Wade, and he stole from me.’

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