DOJ Claims Suspended Broker Defrauded Facebook Followers of $800K – Wealth Management

Samuel Corum/Getty Images News/Getty Images A FINRA-suspended broker known as “K Money” was arrested and faces charges of defrauding social media followers of more than $800,000. According to the Justice Department, Kenneth Thom was charged with securities and investment advisor fraud and faces 20 years in prison. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said that Thom “used social media to steal from investors.” “If you’re getting investment advice from someone who is not registered as a broker or investment advisor, the risk of fraud is much higher,” he said. Thom first registered in 2006, with brief stints at Joseph Stevens & Company, National Securities Corporation and Next Financial Group. In 2011, FINRA suspended him for failing to pay an arbitration penalty.  According to the DOJ, Thom also told investigators he’d co-mingled an investor’s money with his own in a brokerage account. He allegedly lost the funds and didn’t tell the investor (spending some of it on a Manhattan apartment), eventually ignoring the investor altogether. When Thom was suspended, he re-invented himself as a successful trader on Facebook, calling himself “K$” or “K Money,” and touting his (false) bona fides as a “Wall Street Veteran,” a “luminary,” and a “beacon of knowledge,” the
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