Former Ameriprise Financial Services broker Li-Lin Hsu of Southern California received 136 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a wire fraud charge over an $8.2 million Ponzi scheme.
Hsu, whom the FBI arrested in 2018, purportedly defrauded clients at Ameriprise Financial in the greater Los Angeles area through false investment promises and advertisements in Chinese-language newspapers and falsely told her clients that several companies she founded, such as American Capital Trading Group LLC and American Capital Republic Inc., were Ameriprise affiliates when they were not.
Legal paperwork from federal court in Santa Ana indicates that Hsu (CRD #4706509), while associated with Ameriprise Financial, operated Li-Lin Hsu Wealth Management, while FINRA BrokerCheck lists employment at Transglobal Advisory, LLC of Pasadena, as well as at Ameriprise's Glendale, CA branch.
Prosecutors accused Hsu of soliciting investments from investors—including Ameriprise Financial Services customers or clients at Hsu's own companies she falsely portrayed as Ameriprise affiliates—through Chinese-language ads, and then stealing millions of dollars to purchase luxury items and for other personal expenses.
Ameriprise Financial terminated Hsu in 2015 over allegations she maintained an inappropriate beneficiary relationship with a client and for other Ameriprise policy violations related to complaint handling, commingling funds, and conducting business with a foreign client.
In 2017, Ameriprise paid a customer $675,000 to settle a dispute alleging that Hsu misappropriated investment funds. The customer claimed that Ameriprise concealed or failed to disclose that Hsu had been suspended for "repeated" violations of company policies and laws when the firm assigned Hsu to the customer.
Shortly thereafter, a FINRA arbitration panel ordered Hsu to pay $675,000 in damages to Ameriprise Financial.
Similarly, in 2018, Ameriprise Financial reached an arbitration settlement with customers who alleged Hsu illegally borrowed money from them and made an unsuitable recommendation. Hsu's file indicates that claims against Hsu remain pending in California Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles.
If you have invested with former Ameriprise Financial Services broker Li-Lin Hsu of Diamond Bar, California, or with any firm or financial adviser who has solicited your investments, only to fraudulently misappropriate funds, thus harming your financial interests, please call an experienced FINRA arbitration attorney at The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.