Former Cetera, Securities America broker gets 32 months in prison after looting client trust

A former financial advisor, with stints at Cetera and Osaic broker-dealers, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 32 months in prison for wire fraud after stealing $531,411 from a client’s trust account over about six years.

The advisor, Michael P. Raineri, 63, was indicted in November 2024, according to the Department of Justice. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud in June 2025.

Raineri started working in the securities industry in 2006, according to his BrokerCheck profile, and was registered with Cetera Advisors in Seattle from 2012 to 2018. He then spent two years at KMS Financial Services Inc., which was eventually owned by the broker-dealer network Osaic.

From 2020 to 2023, Raineri was registered with Securities America Inc., which was absorbed recently into Osaic.

Raineri was “discharged,” meaning fired, by Securities America two years ago for failing “to follow firm policies, including being named as [Power of Attorney] for customers' bank accounts and engaging in financial transactions with a customer for payment processing for personal services customer received from third parties without prior request or approval by the firm,” according to his BrokerCheck report.

Spokespersons for Cetera and Osaic did not comment abut Raneri’s sentencing.

In 2013, Raineri’s victim inherited about $2 million held in a revocable trust.

“When he received the inheritance, the victim also had a team of people to help manage the money and Raineri was one of them,” according to a statement by the Justice Department. “The victim told the advisors he did not want to take any risks with the money but instead wanted to have it for his retirement.”

“Over the next ten years, Raineri ingratiated himself with the victim and stayed as an advisor to the victim’s trust even when Raineri switched financial firms,” according to the Justice Department. “He used various false justifications to convince the victim to provide him with blank checks, with a power of attorney, and with a key to his apartment.”

“These tools were all used so that Raineri could defraud the client,” according to the Justice Department. “Between 2016 and 2020, Raineri used twelve blank checks to steal $397,000 from the victims account, passing it through another client’s account before depositing it in his own bank account. Later he moved some $115,226 from the victim’s account directly to his own. He even paid the lease on his luxury car from the victim’s account.”

In 2022, the victim became concerned about the balances in his account and an audit revealed the theft.