Paul R McGonigle Pleads Guilty to Fraud

PAUL RICHARD MCGONIGLE (Paul R McGonigle), 67, a Middleboro, Massachusetts, financial advisor pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston for defrauding his elderly and otherwise vulnerable clients and stealing the victims’ retirement assets.

According to the press release from the US Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts, Paul R McGonigle pleaded guilty to one count of investment advisor fraud, two counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.  McGonigle’s sentencing is scheduled for June 22, 2023. He is facing many years in prison as well as a possible fine of several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The US Attorney’s office press release stated that Paul R McGonigle was a financial advisor for the victims, many of whom were elderly, one of whom had dementia, and another who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Beginning approximately February 2015, McGonigle caused unauthorized withdrawals from the victims’ annuities and allegedly persuaded victims to give him money to invest on their behalf, which he then used for personal and business expenses. According to the press release, McGonigle posed as clients on calls with the client’s annuity companies and signed their names on forms requesting withdrawals from their annuities.  

According to FINRA’s BrokerCheck, available to the public on FINRA’s website, Paul R McGonigle, was barred by FINRA in August of 2020.  McGonigle was in the securities industry for 34 years and had been listed with 6 firms.  He has 3 disclosures on his FINRA CRD report. There is a pending “Customer Dispute”  filed in May of 2022 alleging, “Claimant alleges that during the time period 2012 to 2019, representative misappropriated funds by forging documents to switch annuities for the purpose of stealing funds.” There was a dispute that settled in 2007 alleging, among other claims, churning and excessive trading.  That dispute settled for $247,500.00.

The last two firms Paul R McGonigle was listed with were:

02/14/2018 - 06/28/2019   LPL FINANCIAL LLC         NEW BEDFORD, MA

07/16/1998 - 02/14/2018   SII INVESTMENTS INC     NEW BEDFORD, MA

If you or an elderly family member were clients of Paul R McGonigle formerly of LPL and SII Investments of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and experience financial losses, contact Soreide Law Group and speak to an experienced securities lawyer at no cost regarding the possible recovery of your investment losses through a FINRA arbitration at:  888-760-6552.

Soreide Law Group represents our clients nationwide before FINRA on a contingency basis.