LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A former investment counselor from Tarzana was sentenced Thursday to a prison term and home confinement for having siphoned more than $740,000 from clients, including a Major League Baseball player, in order to fund such personal expenses as college tuition, jewelry, travel and tickets to Los Angeles Lakers games.
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Marc Frankel, 61, was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison followed by 18 months of home confinement. He was also ordered by U.S. District Judge George Wu to pay $743,817 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Frankel pleaded guilty in March to a single federal count of wire fraud.
From 2017 to 2020, Frankel used the account numbers on his client's checking and brokerage accounts to set up automated payments on a personal credit card.
The ballplayer, who is not identified in court papers, "told Frankel that he needed to focus all his attention on his baseball career and was relying on Frankel to manage his assets," prosecutors wrote. Frankel had the authority to manage all of the athlete's assets and various accounts.
Frankel used the credit card, which was in the name of his deceased mother, to buy tickets to Lakers games and cover his children's college tuition payments, jewelry and other purchases, papers filed in Los Angeles federal court show.
Around May 2020, the ballplayer's sports agency noticed unusual transfers from a separate account at the firm and began looking into all of the client's accounts. When Frankel found out, he told the agency that he'd reviewed all transfers in the account he used to withdraw funds, falsely stating that nothing was suspicious.
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