A former Morgan Stanley advisor faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding clients of $7 million, according to the Department of Justice.
Shawn Edward Good pleaded guilty in North Carolina federal court to counts of wire fraud and money laundering for running the scheme, after being charged by the DOJ earlier this year. (He also faced similar charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission in April.)
“This investment advisor breached the trust of at least a dozen clients, taking over $7 million—money he promised would go to low-risk investments—and used it to line his pockets, buying real estate, luxury cars and vacations,” U.S. Attorney Michael Easley said. “This decade-long scam has finally come to an end.”
Good worked as a registered rep and investment advisor representative for Morgan Stanley from 2012 to 2022, and with Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab prior to that, according to his BrokerCheck profile.
Starting in 2012, Good began running a Ponzi scheme on a number of his clients by soliciting investments for purported real estate projects and municipal bonds. According to the SEC’s complaint, he told clients the investments were low-risk and would offer returns as high as 10% over three to six months.
To complete the investments, Good convinced clients to access liquid asset lines of credit backed by their Morgan Stanley accounts, and would direct them to transfer those…
