Authorities say con man fleeced retired teachers

Dozens of retired public school teachers knew Robert Sturman as the financial adviser who for years had astutely handled their life savings.

So when he promised big returns from a plan to broker tickets for events at the Wachovia Center, out came the checkbooks. But, federal investigators say, Sturman had turned con man, stealing at least $4.6 million and maybe up to $7 million, often from retired Philadelphia and Bucks County schoolteachers.

He had at least 50 victims, according to prosecutors.

The ticket fraud was his favored scheme, and in one instance a retired Philadelphia teacher living in Florida gave him $915,000 over a period of months, say court documents. She received some money back - including $120,000 allegedly fraudulently obtained from an elderly widow.

Sturman, 56, who has lived at a variety of addresses in Montgomery and Bucks Counties, also stole money that he promised to invest in annuities and other financial instruments, the government charges.

Once a legitimate insurance agent and investment counselor, Sturman turned into "a classic con artist," Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen L. Grigsby wrote in court filings. "He will promise anything, will sign anything, will agree to anything, will smoothly and contritely announce his intention to repay his victims . . . but he is not to be trusted or believed."

Yesterday, a graying, balding, tired, and thin-looking Sturman stood in U.S. District Court and pleaded not guilty to mail fraud and other charges. Dressed in an oversize green prison jumpsuit, he sat next to a defendant charged with bank robbery.

Sturman was arrested on federal charges in July and has been held without bail.

It was not his first encounter with the law. In April, state police arrested him at PhiladelphiaPark Casino & Racetrack when they discovered that he was wanted on a New Jersey theft charge.

A Bucks County court freed him on $10,000 bail - produced by a former client who had already lost $165,000. When Sturman did not appear in court on the Bucks charge, the former client lost the bail money, too, federal documents say.

Grigsby cited that incident when successfully arguing that Sturman would be able to find money to flee prosecution and thus should be held without bail.

Indeed, a person who admitted being cheated by Sturman nevertheless submitted a letter to federal court commending Sturman's character.

"Though initially being bilked out of a substantial amount of money and going through an anger stage . . . I renewed my relationship with Rob and observed a transformed man . . . and is now wanting to help people," said the letter, signed by Kenneth Krevitz.

Various court documents say Sturman lost a job with Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. in 1999 for "low production" and set up his own firm, Retirement Planning Associates. He then bilked people whom he had "gained the trust of . . . over the years through the sale of legitimate, profitable investments." Sturman also had a company named Liberty Bell Racing Stables.

Some of the alleged victims of his scams, which the government alleges started in 1997 and continued through 2007, include:

A Cherry Hill couple, one a retired Philadelphia schoolteacher, who had purchased legitimate annuities from Sturman and were enticed to invest $50,000 in the ticket scheme. When they demanded repayment, Sturman gave them a $25,000 check on a closed account, and later a $10,000 bad check drawn on a third person's account with the address of a Salvation Army shelter.

The widow of a Philadelphia teacher who had two $500,000 life-insurance payments in a trust account after her husband's death. Sturman had originated the insurance policies, and persuaded an employee of the insurer to forward him the trust account checkbook. Sturman tried to get the widow to sign $625,000 over to him. She refused, but he eventually drained the accounts of $600,000, including the $120,000 he used to repay an angry victim of his ticket scam.

A Florida woman who was told that he could generate 20 percent returns over three months through the ticket scheme. She sent him 12 checks over a period of eight months, according to an affidavit by a U.S. Postal Inspection Service agent. To keep the checks coming, he mailed her $29,500 in "returns" during that period. When she pressed Sturman for more money, he sent her a variety of checks worth $350,000, all of which bounced. The court documents do not say how much the woman ultimately lost.

Sturman, Grigsby wrote, "is now estranged from his family and has no job, no known assets, and no place to live."