Vania May Bell, the former comptroller and chief compliance officer of Executive Compensation Planners, Inc. (ECP), a registered investment adviser and financial planning firm located in New City, New York, has pled guilty to participating in a conspiracy with her father, Hector May, the former president of ECP, to defraud certain investment advisory clients (the ‘Victims’) out of more than $11 million.
According to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, Vania May Bell admitted to violating the trust of ECP’s clients by taking their money intended for investments and instead spending it for personal and business expenses as part of an illegal Ponzi scheme.
As stated in the indictment, beginning in 1982, May was the president of ECP and provided financial advisory services to numerous clients. In 1993, Vania May Bell joined ECP, where she held various titles including comptroller and chief compliance officer.
In order to obtain money from the Victims’ securities accounts with Broker Dealer-1, May advised the Victims that they should use money from those accounts to have ECP, rather than Broker Dealer-1, purchase bonds on their behalf. He further represented that by purchasing bonds through ECP directly, the Victims could avoid transaction fees.
Vania May Bell and her father, Hector May, guided the Victims to withdraw their money from their Broker Dealer-1 accounts and send that money to the ECP Custodial Account. At times, May falsely represented that the funds being withdrawn from Victims’ Broker Dealer-1 accounts were the proceeds of prior bond purchases May had made.
After the Victims sent their money to the ECP Custodial Account, Vania May Bell and Hector May did not use the money to purchase bonds. Instead, they transferred the money to ECP’s ‘operating’ account and spent it on business expenses, personal expenses, and to make payments to certain Victims in order to perpetuate the scheme and conceal the fraud.
Vania May Bell pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Defendant: Vania May Bell, former comptroller and chief compliance officer of Executive Compensation Planners, Inc.
Criminal Charges: Conspiring to defraud clients.
City, State: New York
Crime Date: Not specified in the source.
Sentence: Not specified in the source.
Dollar Amounts: Over $11 million.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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