SEC charges ex-LPL broker with stealing $1.3 million from elderly client

The Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday charged a former LPL Financial broker and investment adviser with stealing close to $1.3 million from an elderly client who currently suffers from dementia, and using the funds for his personal and business expenses.

The broker, Bradley A. Goodbred, is based in suburban Chicago and was registered with LPL from 2009 to 2021, according to his BrokerCheck report. Goodbred, who was barred from the securities industry last year for not cooperating with an investigation by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., did not return a call Friday morning to comment.

The SEC's complaint alleges that from 2012 to 2020, Goodbred solicited one of his clients, who's now 97 years old, to send him money to make purported investments in real estate investment trusts on her behalf and to transfer the money to one of his businesses. The complaint further alleges that to fund some of the purported investments, the client, with Goodbred's advice and approval, sold securities in her account and transferred the proceeds to Goodbred.

According to the complaint, rather than investing the client's money in REITs or any other investments, Goodbred used the client's money for personal and business expenses unrelated to any purported investments. Goodbred stole close to $1.3 million and repaid the client $450,000.

LPL Financial earlier this year settled a customer claim for $1.2 million, according to Goodbred's BrokerCheck profile. In that matter, the customer alleged that Goodbred caused her to execute a document appointing him as her power of attorney, and that he allegedly induced the customer to invest in a fraudulent, unregistered security between 2009 to 2020.

LPL Financial is not named in the SEC's complaint. An LPL spokesperson on Friday did not return a call to comment.