The former comptroller and chief compliance officer of a New York financial planning firm has admitted to working alongside her father to scam clients out of more than $11 million in a deception they ran for decades.
Vania May Bell, 57, will be sentenced on July 7 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of twice the gross gain or loss from the offense committed.
The New Jersey woman, who was an executive at Executive Compensation Planners, was first indicted in 2019 by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York. One day before her indictment, her father, Hector May, was sentenced to 13 years in prison and ordered to pay $8 million in restitution in a separate case.
May was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and forfeit $11,452,185.
Bell initially pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In a formal answer to the 2019 court filing, Bell said she “did not ever conspire, assist, conceal, deceive and, most importantly, did not economically gain benefits in any and all of these written allegations.”
But U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Bell admitted in court late last month that she and her father spent years violating the trust of at least 15 clients by taking millions intended for investments and spending it on personal and business expenses. The father-daughter duo also used the stolen money to…
