Niebler received approximately $358,000 from an elderly customer, for whom he was appointed power of attorney, in the form of personal checks written directly to him or his credit card companies to pay down his credit card debt; at least $172,900 of that amount was received after the customer had been diagnosed as incompetent and suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Niebler invoked his power of attorney to sign the customer’s name to certain of the checks. Niebler falsely denied to his firm on compliance questionnaires that he had received any gifts valued in excess of $100 from any of his customers when he was receiving substantial amounts of money from the customer’s bank account, and failed to report that he had obtained the customer’s power of attorney to his firm. In effecting the transfer of funds from the customer to himself or his credit card company, Niebler acted contrary to his duty as a power of attorney, in that he failed to act in the customer’s best interest and did not have the customer’s explicit written authorization to transfer money to himself.
Klebba financially exploited elderly women by convincing them to grant him general power-of- attorney and to sign a document waiving any conflict of interest that Klebba might have. Klebba also had the elderly women name him as
Klebba also had the elderly women give him a $50,000 gift from the proceeds of the sale of a condominium.
Klebba’s acts directly violated his employer’s rules prohibiting registered representatives from being the beneficiary of a contract policy or from accepting a grant of power-of-attorney from customers.
Ramsey served as a registered representative for an elderly customer who executed a power of attorney, giving Ramsey broad authority over her financial affairs. The customer asked Ramsey to invest $600,000 in a variable annuity, and then, without the customer’s knowledge or authorization, Ramsey used the power of attorney to obtain approximately $482,000 in withdrawals from the annuity, which, after taxes were deducted, totaled approximately $373,750. Checks for $373,750 were issued in the customer’s name and sent to Ramsey’s office. Ramsey deposited some of the money into the customer’s checking account, but converted some of the funds for his personal use without the customer’s knowledge or authorization.
Separately, Ramsey borrowed $275,000 from the customer and, in total, owes the customer approximately $500,000.
Ramsey failed to appear to provide testimony.