CLEVELAND — *EDITOR'S NOTE: The above video is from our previous coverage of this story.
A former Westlake financial advisor has been found guilty of stealing millions of dollars as part of a Ponzi scheme.
A federal grand jury on Wednesday convicted 50-year-old Raymond A. Erker, of Avon, of multiple charges related to the scam. He was also found guilty of perjury after lying in federal court about making proper business disclosures.
Erker was one of three people charged in the case, and investigators accused the trio of conspiring to sell investments to 54 clients as fake annuities and senior secured notes. Those would have guaranteed the clients a rate of return, but in actuality, they were bilked out of a total of $9.3 million when Erker and the others falsified records.
In addition, Erker and his co-defendants had ownership stakes in the companies receiving investments, but did not disclose this to clients. When asked under oath in 2019 if he had indeed made his ownership interests public, Erker said he had, "when in fact, Erker knew that statement to be false."
The two others accused in this case — Olmsted Falls natives Tara M. Brunst and Kevin Kratz — have both pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme. All now await sentencing, with Erker specifically facing more than 20 years in federal prison.