If you were a financial adviser hoping to make a name for yourself by ripping off clients, how would you do it? Clients get ripped off on the reg, so it’d have to be something particularly depraved, right? Right. The plan hatched by Paula Halloran, a New Canaan resident previously employed by Smith Barney, and her husband Michael Michelsen was pretty straight forward but it got the job done. Theirs was to steal money from an 81 year-old lady who perhaps would’ve caught on sooner, had she not had Alzheimer’s and dementia.
According to police, the fraudulent activity began in 2005. Funds belonging to the victim were paid to charities, credit companies and other financial institutions, then transferred by Halloran and Michelsen for their own personal use, police said. From April 2006 to November 2008, approximately $765,213 was misappropriated and stolen from the victim, police said. However, the actual amount of money taken was more than $1 million; the statute of limitations only offers a five-year window, preventing roughly a quarter of the million to be included in the report since the activity took place in early 2005, police said.
Halloran became the victim’s financial advisor sometime in 2004 but did not begin taking her money until 2005, the report stated. She was able to take advantage of the fact that the victim was not mentally stable and had her write checks for various reasons, including “charities” and “credit card companies.” One such “charity” supposedly involved something for firefighters; Michelsen is a Wilton firefighter, however, that department was not mentioned by police.
Luckily the couple has a legitimate excuse, which is that they needed some cash to cover their “personal finances” which included building a beach house in Block Island.
New Canaan Couple Charged With Larceny [New Canaan News]
Horrible. Simply horrible.
You don’t seem like a regular here.
This is how we earn it.
This is how we earn it.
This is how we earn it.
This is how we earn it.
Slime.
Slime.
Slime.
Slime.
I clicked off of Redtube just to read that some old person got ripped off. What a waste of time.
-SEC Investigator
I clicked off of Redtube just to read that some old person got ripped off. What a waste of time.
-SEC Investigator
I clicked off of Redtube just to read that some old person got ripped off. What a waste of time.
-SEC Investigator
I clicked off of Redtube just to read that some old person got ripped off. What a waste of time.
-SEC Investigator
Standard operating procedure.
- former Lehman Bros. exec
Not remembering you ever had money is the NKI
You know what’s worse than having your name tarnished in the press? Having the name Michael Michelsen.
You know what’s worse than having your name tarnished in the press? Having the name Michael Michelsen.
The man is a firefighter and therefore a hero. I am not doing to stand by and watch you run down an American hero. By the way, it’s great that there is a statute of limitations on defrauding the mentally incompetent – the US legal system is top notch.
This might actually be a case where the client is literally asking “where is my yacht”, no?
Horrible but funny.
Horrible but funny.
Wait 5 years? I think I got screwed here.
- Bernie
A Smith Barney spokesperson was quoted as saying, “The fees generated by Paula and Michael equate to about 3.5% per annum, which is actually a deal for our bonds-and-cash-management package.”
A Smith Barney spokesperson was quoted as saying, “The fees generated by Paula and Michael equate to about 3.5% per annum, which is actually a deal for our bonds-and-cash-management package.”
To Michelsen:
“Five years ago…that’s an old crime. They ain’t even got room in jail for all these Indians from Galleon…they just f***in’ with ya…”
Ordell Robbie – Smith Barney Compliance Chief
They found a house on Block Island for a million? Maybe they’re not such douches…I’m just saying.
An old lady dares her financial advisor,”I bet you can’t tell how old I am.”
“You’re on,” she says. She gets out the old lady’s checkbook and writes out a stack of checks and says, “Sign these,” and when the old lady’s all finished she looks over the checks carefully for a long while and finally says”A-ha, you are 81 years old.”
“That’s increidble” the old lays says, “How did you know?”
And her financial advisor says, “You told me yesterday.”
Couldn’t have said it better.
-Col. Kurtz
Didn’t we see her in a Chicopee Denny’s recently?
Agreed.
-Chad Michael Michaels
Agreed.
-Chad Michael Michaels
Am I missing something? I don’t see what they did wrong.
$75,000 for the Wilton Fireman Fund? How kind of you dear thanks. Hi honey it’s me, let’s go ahead and go with that Italian marble in the solarium…
What do you expect from Morgan Stanley? Friggin thieves!
What do you expect from Morgan Stanley? Friggin thieves!
This is simply wealth distribution, no concerns here.
-Obama
This is almost Gods work.
Lloyd Blankfein
I like the fact the he (Michelson) got willed the land they built the house on, from an elderly man who was 85 years old. He (douche-bag, oops I mean Michelson) gave the elderly man the right to live on the property until his death. Which, for your information was a few months later, maybe even one month. He is just a horrible man. Would love to know how he got his filthy mitts on the land. I read a blog that said he was a hero because he was a firefighter. I would love to hear from other firefighters on that. They don’t get to much lower then him.