After Chino, California police arrested Robert Lee Basile for stealing $130,000 from his elderly mother's brokerage account, FINRA barred the former Waddell & Reed and Park Avenue Securities broker for spending the misappropriated funds on himself without her knowledge or consent. The City of Chino also removed Basile—a former Community Services Commissioner for the City—from his post.
FINRA's report pinpointed Basile (CRD #2392772)'s illicit conversion of funds as occurring between 2015 and 2017, when Basile presided over his elderly mother's brokerage account at Waddell & Reed, with Basile stationed at the firm's Riverside, California branch.
Oddly enough, an InvestmentNews report indicates that one of Bob Basile's last Facebook page posts dated December 2017 stated, "The holidays are about family — and family conversations. Be sure to speak with your elderly relatives about preventing financial fraud."
Waddell & Reed filed a termination notice pertaining to such elder financial fraud and an internal review initiated on May 31, 2018, when Basile was arrested in Chino for "theft by caretaker" related to an elder abuse investigation initiated in Boise, Idaho, where Basile's mother lives.
According to the Chino Police Department, Basile unlawfully withdrew money from his mother's trust fund over a four year period. Although San Bernardino County prosecutors initially declined to file criminal charges in June, Basile agreed to a plea bargain based on resubmitted filings in October and earlier this month received a two-year suspended sentence for the felony count of theft from an elder.
Basile's BrokerCheck report indicates an additional association with Park Avenue Securities in Corona, which terminated on June 25, 2018, as well as employment with Guardian Life Insurance Company of America in Newport Beach, CA, from 2017 to the present.
If you have invested with Robert Lee Basile or with any broker or financial adviser who has stolen, converted, or fraudulently misappropriated funds from your brokerage account without your knowledge, thus harming your investments or interests, please call The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for investigation and consultation.