Red Bank Man Admits Stealing $1.6M From Clients: Manhattan DA

NEW YORK, NY — A Red Bank man who worked as a financial adviser in New York City has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1.6 million from clients and using it for personal expenses such as credit card payments, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. announced.

Brian Keenan, 60, of Red Bank, was a trustee at Train, Babcock Advisors when he stole the money over a five-period, from 2007 to 2012, Vance said in a news release Wednesday.

Keenan pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to first-degree grand larceny for stealing money from three separate trusts belonging to people in the same family.

A DA spokesperson told Patch on Thursday that Judge Maxwell Wiley promised Keenan a sentence of two-and-one-third years to seven years in prison after a previous recommendation of three to nine years in prison.

During his time at the firm, on Third Avenue in Manhattan, Keenan opened a joint checking account under his name and the name of one of the beneficiaries of the trusts he managed, Vance said. He then issued more than 40 checks from the three trust accounts and deposited the funds, which totaled $1.6 million, into the joint account, the DA said. Keenan withdrew the money as cash or transferred it to his own personal account, Vance said, and then spent the money on his personal expenses.

The beneficiaries on the joint account had no access to the account, Vance said.

“A financial adviser’s chief responsibility is to act in the best interest of his or her clients,” Vance said in the news release. “Instead of abiding by that duty, Brian Keenan took advantage of the victims in this case and stole their money to pay for his own personal expenses."

"My office is committed to ensuring the integrity of New York’s financial advisory industry and holding accountable those who engage in this type of fraud,” Vance said.

Keenan is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 21, he said.

Reporting by Matt Tracy (Patch Staff); Image via Shutterstock