TRENTON –Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that an Ocean County man was sentenced to prison today for stealing over $400,000 from investors by depositing their funds into a securities trading company he formed, but then using the funds for his own expenses and personal day trading.
Jeffrey D. Griffin, Jr., 43, of Toms River, N.J., was sentenced today to 10 years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Joseph Portelli in Passaic County. He also was ordered to pay full restitution. Griffin was convicted at trial on May 8 by a Passaic County jury of all counts in a five-count indictment charging him with theft by deception, misapplication of entrusted property, two counts of violation of New Jersey’s Uniform Securities Act, and money laundering, all in the second degree.
“Our strong message to dishonest agents in the investment industry is that if you break the law and cheat New Jersey investors out of their hard-earned savings, we will prosecute you and make you pay,” said Attorney General Grewal. “This defendant betrayed his clients to serve his own greed, but now he will serve time in prison, thanks to our trial team and all of the investigators in the Division of Criminal Justice and Bureau of Securities whose outstanding collaboration secured this verdict.”
“Griffin’s clients trusted him to invest in legitimate investment vehicles for their benefit, but he repaid their trust by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars of their money,” said Director Veronica Allende of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We will aggressively investigate these egregious and criminal violations of trust and prosecute those responsible to the full extent of the law.”
The state presented testimony and evidence at trial that from August 2010 through July 2011, Griffin stole $408,000 from four investors – three men and one woman – whose funds were deposited by Griffin into his newly formed company, Tricep Trading LLC. Griffin had worked as a stockbroker for another investment firm, but he left that firm and formed Tricep in August 2010.
The three men had been clients of Griffin at the prior firm, and Griffin led two of them to believe that their funds were still being invested through that firm or through a new division of the firm that Griffin was heading. One had $100,000 of his funds deposited into the Tricep business account without his knowledge. He received checks totaling $39,000 from Griffin before Tricep ran out of funds, for a net loss of $61,000. Griffin told the other three victims that he would be investing on their behalf through hedge fund-type investments or day trading.
The other two men each invested $25,000 and received no returns. The woman invested $324,000 and received $27,000 in checks from Griffin, for a net loss of $297,000.
Griffin transferred funds from the Tricep business account into his personal account and used the Tricep account to make numerous ATM withdrawals and retail purchases. He transferred $25,000 from Tricep to a firm that engaged in real estate flipping, but did not record that as an investment for Tricep. He used another $120,000 – which he first transferred to his personal account – to open an account with a day trading firm that prohibits members from trading other investors’ money. By May 2011, Tricep was out of funds.
Attorney General Grewal thanked the Bureau of Securities for its investigation and referral. In June 2013, the Bureau of Securities revoked Griffin’s registration as an agent of a broker-dealer and permanently barred him from association in any capacity with any broker-dealer or investment adviser conducting business in New Jersey. It also assessed a $125,000 civil penalty against Griffin and Tricep.