Ex-LPL, Wells Fargo Rep Pleads Guilty to Stealing $600K From Clients

What You Need to Know

Instead of investing clients’ funds as promised, the ex-broker used their money for gambling and personal expenses, according to the Justice Department.
Some of his clients were more than 80 years old and/or disabled.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 27.

A former broker for LPL Financial and Wells Fargo pleaded guilty to stealing more than $600,000 from his clients at both firms to fund his gambling and personal expenses, according to court documents and the Justice Department.

Mario E. Rivero Jr., 39, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, to an information that charged him with one count each of wire fraud and securities fraud, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced Friday.

The wire fraud and security fraud counts each carry a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and maximum fines of $1 million and $5 million, respectively, Sellinger said. Sentencing is scheduled for June 27.

Initially, the Justice Department had filed a complaint against Rivero in March 2022 that charged him with two counts of wire fraud, one count of investment advisor fraud and one count of securities fraud.

Rivero became a broker for Wells Fargo Clearing Services in 2010, according to his report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court, from April 2018 through November 2020, Rivero misappropriated $626,478 from five clients.

In a separate complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the same New Jersey court, the SEC alleged Rivero “fraudulently misappropriated at least $680,000 from investment accounts that he handled, including accounts owned by elderly and/or disabled investors” from about May 2010 to September 2020.