A Maryland-based financial advisor is facing federal charges for allegedly embezzling more than $1 million from a retiree client’s account, according to the Department of Justice.
The DOJ filed the complaint against Eddy Blizzard last week for wire fraud as well as a charge of aggravated identity theft. According to acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner, Blizzard’s actions caused the unnamed victim’s house to go into foreclosure and the victim to owe taxes to the IRS. The elderly victim passed away last March.
“The defendant is charged with perpetrating a heartless scheme that preyed on a vulnerable elderly victim, allegedly stealing more than a million dollars,” Lenzner said. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to bring to justice those who perpetrate these despicable schemes targeting elderly victims.”
According to the DOJ, Blizzard was licensed as both a registered broker and an investment advisor representative and worked for a bank-based investment services firm until 2017. Though the DOJ didn’t publicly name the companies, Blizzard’s BrokerCheck profile and an accompanying affidavit from a federal agent indicated Blizzard worked at M&T Securities and subsequently Suntrust Investment Services (Suntrust was also involved in a FINRA arbitration proceeding against Blizzard).
According to the affidavit, the unnamed victim (referred to in the complaint as “R.M.”) was 75 years old and had retired in 2003 after 40 years with a Maryland-based commercial air conditioning company. After his retirement, R.M. decided to invest his retirement funds and went to M&T Bank, where he had depository accounts. It was there he met Blizzard, who soon became R.M.’s financial advisor, according to the agent’s affidavit.
Around 2005, Blizzard said he “went on his own” to work independently, and asked if R.M. wanted to leave M&T Bank and use his services. R.M. and Blizzard allegedly began holding meetings in Blizzard’s car, and R.M. was never told why they were meeting that way, according to the affidavit.
Around 2010, Blizzard began asking R.M. for signed blank checks, and R.M. gave him about 15 to 20. When R.M. needed cash, the bank would tell him there wasn’t enough money in the account. Blizzard would advise him to check again in a day or two. Nevertheless, R.M. believed his retirement savings were protected and that Blizzard was paying R.M.’s mortgage.
In August 2019, R.M. tried to withdraw cash for a family vacation and again was told there were not enough funds. According to the affidavit, R.M. called Blizzard with no response and went to his house, banging on his front and back doors.
R.M. got a voicemail from Blizzard, claiming neighbors had contacted him about the banging. Blizzard allegedly said that all of R.M.’s money was gone, and that he was in the hospital after an unsuccessful suicide attempt at his parents’ home in South Carolina. The federal agent investigating the case said Blizzard's mother and stepfather told investigators that Blizzard last visited them in the summer of 2019 and had not attempted to kill himself. Around this time, Blizzard allegedly emailed R.M.’s son saying he was sorry that he had “made some bad investments.”
Between 2013 and 2019 there’d been 242 distributions from R.M.’s depository and investment accounts, and 129 of those (totaling $1.2 million) were requested specifically from R.M.’s retirement accounts, as opposed to regular annuity payments. In all, about $1 million was deposited from R.M.’s retirement accounts into his bank account. According to the affidavit, investigators believed the withdrawals were made by Blizzard, since R.M. could not read or write and was thus unlikely to use a website or fax a withdrawal request.
Between April 2016 and April 2019, Blizzard deposited about 112 checks drawn from R.M.’s account to a number of bank accounts held by Blizzard or jointly with his wife; in total, the checks amounted to $848,000 and were written to Blizzard or his wife. The checks often had comments written in the memo section indicating various purposes such as “payment of property taxes, construction, boat payments, and down payments for a new house,” according to the affidavit.
R.M. received a letter from the IRS in 2019, and though he couldn’t understand its contents, his relatives later discovered that he owed about $63,000 in federal income taxes due to the disbursements from his retirement accounts. Additionally, his home was put into the foreclosure process around the fall of 2019 because he’d believed Blizzard was handling it. According to the DOJ, R.M. died in March 2020.
If Blizzard is convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the fraud charge, as well as two years for the identity theft charge.\
