Ellwood Jones Revisited
We first wrote about stockbroker Ellwood Jones in March of 2013. Back then we were investigating Jones for selling a Ponzi scheme to customers. At the time, Jones already had two major blemishes on his record. Since that post things have gotten worse. Today he is out of the securities industry and his former employer is out almost $4 million.
Ellwood Jones’ stockbroker career began in the 1980’s when New York Life Securities hired him. He worked in New York until hired by NFP Advisor Services in 1997. Jones stayed with NFP until his resignation in 2011.
While at NFP, Jones racked up 3 customer complaints. That may not seem like much but a recent Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that over 99% of brokers never have a single complaint. Jones has a total of four.
We first wrote about Jones after learning that he was selling an offshore Ponzi scheme investment called PIWM. Short for Private International Wealth Management, PIWM collapsed leaving hundreds of investors with worthless investments. At first, Jones was serving on a creditor’s committee on behalf of a court ordered trustee. Later, however, it was determined that Jones was actually one of the people selling the worthless investment.
It seem like Jones was up to all sorts of mischief in recent years. A customer accused him last year of selling unsuitable investments, negligence, not performing due diligence on the investments he was recommending, fraud and elder abuse. The claimed loss in that case is $1, 972,000. That case is still pending.
A case filed last year after our 2013 blog post accused Jones of misrepresentation. The claimed losses in that case were $10,000,000. That case settled in February for $3.75 million.
All in all, Jones has racked up 4 complaints, 3 in the last few years. If there is any silver lining it’s that Ellwood is no longer registered with any firm.
We still wonder how many other victims are out there. Chances are good for many Ellwood Jones clients that it isn’t too late to seek compensation for losses. We spoke with one former NFP employee who tells us that Jones other brokers to a PIWM meeting outside the United States.
If you made a PIWM investment through Jones, Jablon or Sindrich or if you lost money with Jones, it may be possible to get back your hard earned money.
For more information, contact attorney Brian Mahany at or by telephone at (direct). Time is running out to make a claim.
MahanyLaw – Investment Fraud Lawyers