A five year sentence was given to a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. broker for stealing millions of dollars from his customers. The suspect admitted having an addiction to game gambling which pushed him to commit the act.
At one point in his career, Michael Oppenheim had almost $90 million under his care at JPMorgan. According to Reuters, Oppenheim worked with around 500 well-off clients as a vice president and private client adviser in the company. All these accolades went down the hill the moment he was tempted to use the money for gambling.
According to prosecutors, the former broker tempted his clients to withdraw millions of dollars from their accounts with a promise that he will invest the money on low-risk municipal bonds which will be held at the bank. Instead of doing so, he used the money to gather cashier's check and deposited it to his own account outside the bank. These move lasted for around seven years which targeted clients that pay less attention to their accounts, as per Bloomberg.
In 1993, Oppenheim started betting on weekly National Football League and gradually moved to online sports betting. Paul Schechtman, the suspect's attorney, said that after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, he began to steal from clients in order to make up for his losses. As reported by Channel News Asia, Oppenheim even traded stocks options for companies such as Apple, Google and Netflix. He typically lost the entire amount of each deposit.
Oppenheim pleaded guilty in November for stealing $20 million dollars which affected 10 of his wealthiest clients. He covered up his deed by giving clients fake accounts in what others call a game of hide and seek with their money. The former broker got a break from US District Judge Analisa Torres who said that this case is a battle of gambling addiction and the care for his disabled daughter is the reason why she gave him less than 10 years prosecution. Oppenheim also expressed his remorse for doing the crime.
According to Michael Fusco, the spokesperson of the company, they are already working with clients that were affected with the case and made sure that all their money have been returned to them. He added that they are very saddened and angry that circumstances like this happen. The company is reportedly very sorry for the clients and the hard working employees of the company who work every day to do the right thing for their clients as well as the company.
