Securities Bulletin

              SECURITIES bulletin
Recent news reports, both in Illinois and
nationally, tell of retirees losing their pen-sions.
Most of the stories focused on pen-sion
losses resulting from large corporate
bankruptcies. What is rarely reported is
the fact that many Americans are losing
their pensions and hard-earned savings to
one-man operators posing as investment
professionals. Con-artists often gain the
trust of retirees by flashing fancy creden-tials,
using sophisticated investment lingo,
and producing graphs and charts of pur-ported
earnings. By the time the investor
discovers and reports the fraud, much if
not all of the investment is gone.
My office, along with Attorney General’s
office and the U.S. Attorneys offices in
Illinois, are committed to prosecuting
fraudsters who prey on innocent retirees.
As the recent prosecution and conviction
of Vincent Williams shows (see article in
this issue), these prosecutions are result-ing
in significant jail time for violators of
the law.
I encourage all retirees to take steps to
protect their pensions and savings. Prior
to investing with anyone, contact the
Illinois Securities Department to find out
whether the broker or adviser is regis-tered
to conduct investment-related busi-ness
in Illinois. And remember, if the
investment sounds too good to be true, it
probably is.
Jesse White
Secretary of State
Fall 2004
Secretary of State Jesse White and Attorney General Lisa Madigan
secured a 7-year prison sentence in October for a Chicago man
who promised to invest a retired, arthritic woman’s pension
money, but instead left her with an empty bank account.
Earline Hobson of Maywood lost her home after Vincent Williams
stole the money she gave him to invest on her behalf. Hobson
retired in 2000 at age 57 because of degenerative arthritis. She
entrusted Williams to invest the money from her pension fund,
totaling $167,700 in stocks and mutual funds.
“We’re proud of this joint effort between the Attorney General’s
office and my office’s Securities Department,” said Secretary
White. “We will continue to go after those people who scam inno-cent
investors out of their hard-earned dollars.”
Williams pleaded guilty on Aug. 2, 2004, to two counts of theft
and one count of Violation of the Illinois Securities Act, a Class 3
felony. He also pleaded guilty to an additional count of Violation
of the Securities Act stemming from separate charges of selling
securities without a license. He was sentenced to seven years in
prison for the two counts of theft and two years for the two
counts of securities violations.
Over the past year, the Securities Department has issued more
than 300 administrative orders against violators of the Illinois
Securities Act and participated in 13 criminal cases. Although
more than $4.5 million was returned to investors through restitu-tion
actions, most investors in securities fraud cases never recover
the full extent of their investments.
“I encourage all potential investors to do their part in protecting
themselves against securites fraud by contacting the Securities
Department first before committing their hard-earned money,”
added White.
Secretary White, Attorney General
Madigan secure sentence for man who
stole woman’s retirement fund
A NEWSLETTER OF THE ILLINOIS SECURITIES DEPARTMENT • SECRETARY OF STATE JESSE WHITE
IN
THIS
ISSUE
• 2005 REGISTRATION RENEWAL •
• FAQ — FILING REQUIREMENTS •
• ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATIVE ORDERS •
• INVESTOR EDUCATION GOES TO SCHOOLS •
• SECURITIES DEPARTMENT OFFICES MOVED •