Ex-Philly stockbroker admits defrauding olive-oil investors
A former Philadelphia stockbroker pleaded guilty Wednesday to securities fraud and related charges for taking about $3 million from investors for a nonexistent import business and other ventures.
A former Philadelphia stockbroker pleaded guilty Wednesday to securities fraud and related charges for taking about $3 million from investors for a nonexistent import business and other ventures.
William Bucci, 59, told people he was going to import high-end olive oil and wine from Italy, and promised other investment ventures. He also induced people to loan him money for a Jersey Shore house. But, according to prosecutors, he used the money mostly for his own expenses.
Bucci, who lives in the city but worked in the suburbs, paid back some early investors in part with money he received from later lenders. The amount of his actual fraud remains in dispute.
He remains out on bail and is to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky on Nov. 17.
According to his plea memorandum, Bucci solicited brokerage clients, former schoolmates, friends, and relatives to give him money from 2004 to 2011 with the promise he would pay them as much as 10 percent annual interest and would return the principal in a few years.
Mark Wilson, Bucci's attorney in the Federal Community Defender Office, said after the hearing that Bucci was "somebody who got in over his head."
According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Bucci worked at firms in Conshohocken, Jenkintown, and King of Prussia from 2002 to 2012. His stockbroker's license has been revoked.
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