A former financial advisor operating in Northeast Ohio has pleaded guilty to her role in a five-year, $9.3 million Ponzi scheme.
Tara M. Brunst, 47, entered her guilty plea last week in federal court on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud. She is slated to be sentenced May 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
According to court documents, Brunst was working with co-defendants Raymond A. Erker and Kevin Krantz at Sageguard Wealth Management in Westlake, Ohio, as they carried out a deception that ran from January 2013 through January 2018.
Brunst joined Sageguard in 2015 after being fired from PNC Investments. According to the SEC Investment Advisor Public Disclosure database, Brunst was terminated from PNC on allegations that she fabricated a letter at a client’s request to make it look like PNC Bank was threatening to close the client’s accounts.
She also failed to inform her manager about the letter and was dishonest during the investigation, according to the SEC database.
Federal investigators said Brunst acted as a recruiter in the Sageguard scheme, attracting targets as she and her co-conspirators sold investments to clients that they misrepresented as annuities and senior secured notes with no risk of loss and a guaranteed rate of return.
In reality, investor funds were diverted to personal bank accounts and high-risk business entities controlled by the defendants without consent. To…
