BULLETIN: Steven Salutric, Illinois Man Accused By SEC Last Year Of Stealing From 96-Year-Old Nursing Home Patient With Dementia, Now Charged Criminally

BULLETIN: Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois have charged Steven W. Salutric with wire fraud, the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said.

Salutric, 53, of Carol Stream, initially was charged civilly by the SEC in January 2010, amid shocking allegations that, to keep his Ponzi and fraud scheme afloat, he stole $400,000 from a 96-year-old woman with dementia who resided in a nursing home.

The U.S. Department of Labor later sued Salutric, alleging that he illegally withdrew “more than $1 million from five pension plan client accounts from 2005 through 2009” and “jeopardized the retirement security of many workers.”

Fitzgerald’s office now says Salutric, who co-founded an investment-advisory firm known as Results One Financial LLC, “caused about 10 clients to lose more than $4.26 million.”

Salutric’s scheme, which in part involved dipping into client’ custodial funds at Charles Schwab & Co Inc., operated between December 2002 and January 2010, prosecutors said.

“Salutric allegedly fraudulently obtained more than $3 million from clients by preparing, forging clients’ signatures on, and faxing documents that falsely represented to Schwab that the clients wished to transfer funds from their Schwab accounts to bank accounts held by Salutric’s personal business associates and entities in which he had a financial interest,” prosecutors said. “Salutric allegedly used at least a portion of the clients’ funds to make Ponzi-type deposits to other clients’ accounts to conceal and prolong the scheme.”