NEW YORK - A U.S. money manager who helped start a financial planning firm has been arrested on charges of defrauding clients of millions of dollars by stealing from their accounts, authorities said Wednesday.
Matthew Weitzman, a founder and principal at AFW Wealth Advisors with offices in Purchase, New York, and Natick, Massachusetts, was charged with securities fraud and wire fraud.
He is accused in a criminal complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, of fraudulently obtaining more than $6 million of AFW investor funds and converting them to his own personal use without clients' knowledge.
A lawyer for Weitzman could not immediately be reached for comment.
An AFW representative was also not immediately available. The firm is a fee-only planning firm founded in 1993, according to its website.
In April, New York Times financial writer Ron Lieber wrote a column in the newspaper saying he had used Weitzman as his planner. He said AFW contacted him, saying it had found irregularities in a limited number of client accounts and that the firm had notified authorities.
Lieber wrote in his April column that the firm's email stated that Weitzman was on leave and would have no further contact with client accounts.
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