The Manhattan district attorney announced recently that a former New York-based financial adviser will spend more than two years in prison after admitting that he committed trust theft. The adviser, Brian Keenan, formerly of Train, Babcock Advisors LLC, took $1.6 million out of three trusts that he oversaw.
From 2007 and 2012, Keenan used a checking account set up in his own name and the name of one of the trust beneficiaries to withdraw funds from the trusts for personal use. The beneficiary had not been given access to the account.
Civil Suits Filed in California
Keenan’s client Delia Foster had set up trusts for her nephew and his two children, relying on Keenan and his firm to manage the assets. According to civil suits filed in California state court, Keenan had been managing Foster’s assets since the 1990s.
In 2013, when Foster discovered the assets had been removed from the trust accounts, she sued both Keenan and Train, Babcock Advisors.
Adviser Pleads Guilty
Keenan, 60, pled guilty in New York Supreme Court to one count of grand larceny for diverting the funds from trusts set up by of one of his clients. Keenan will receive a sentence of two years and four months to seven years in exchange for his plea.
Sentencing for the former adviser is scheduled for December 2017.
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