Former broker in Philadelphia sentenced to five years in prison

A former broker with the Bolton Global Capital in Wayne, Pa., has been sentenced to 63 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay $886,214 in restitution to victims of his fraud. Paul W. Smith, the former broker, was discharged by Bolton in February 2017. The criminal case against Mr. Smith paralleled a civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2017. The case alleged that from 1991 to 2016, Mr. Smith raised approximately $2.35 million from about 30 investors — many of whom were his brokerage customers — by claiming he would invest their money in publicly traded securities through The Haverford Group, an outside partnership that he formed and did not disclose to Bolton. The SEC alleged that Mr. Smith made very few securities investments and instead largely used investors' money to repay other investors, and for his own personal use.