Barred Broker Whose Probation Was Revoked Pleads Guilty to Fraud
Raymond James, AGP and Kathleen Quinn, the attorney representing Shillin, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
9 Counts of Wire Fraud
A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Shillin in October. The Justice Department charged him with nine counts of wire fraud and one count of bank fraud.
Shillin allegedly told his clients that he bought nonpublic stock of well-known companies on their behalf and that they made hundreds of thousands of dollars on those investments when Shillin had actually not purchased the stocks at all, according to the indictment.
The indictment further alleged that Shillin convinced several clients to buy insurance policies by misrepresenting the cost of the policies and the benefits, and that Shillin received commission payments on some of those policies. He also allegedly provided clients with fraudulent tax documents to make them appear eligible for tax breaks to which they weren’t entitled.
The indictment also charged Shillin with defrauding a bank by obtaining two loans totaling $462,000 on behalf of his company, SWM, by using fraudulent collateral. The indictment alleged that he provided an account statement showing that SWM owned an account with a balance of over $1.2 million, when actually it was a client who owned and controlled the account.
Barred From the Industry
Shillin was a registered representative and broker with Raymond James from 2014 to 2018 and served in the same roles at Alliance Global Partners from 2018 to 2020, according to his report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website.
On Nov. 18, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin entered a partial judgment against Shillin in a civil action that was filed by the SEC on Sept. 23, charging him with defrauding at least 100 clients.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Shillin, while acting as an advisor, fabricated documents and made misrepresentations to clients, many of whom were older adults.
Shillin was the subject of 37 client disputes, according to his BrokerCheck report. All were filed after he was terminated by Raymond James on May 21, 2018, and resigned from AGP on Oct. 2, 2020, while under investigation for alleged securities violations. In the disputes, many of which are still pending, Shillin was accused of making a diverse array of misrepresentations to clients.
In December, Shillin was barred from the industry by FINRA after he refused to produce information or documents or give on-the-record testimony as requested by FINRA staff. The SEC issued an order in January permanently barring Shillin from the financial services industry.
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