Schwab and Judith Zabalaoui
This is a doozy. Starts back in 1974 when Judith Zabalaoui founded Resource Management in Metairie, La. Apparently she left the firm in 1991, according to a 2009 Financial Advisor article, but the exact date of her departure, if she left at all, is unknown. Her son Michael was left behind as the Executive VP and still is. Judith was convicted of a Ponzi scheme, ordered to pay restitution of $5M and sentenced to prison. When the Ponzi scheme started is again unknown. What is known is the firm custodied with Schwab when Judith was in charge and custodies with Schwab still. They have $1.7B AUM
So, tell me why did Schwab terminate the contract of the small AUM RIA in Minnesota for putting his clients in the local small cap fishery stock, that everyone in town wanted a piece of? The reason Schwab gave the poor RIA was “excessive concentration in penny stocks”