Former Adviser Charged with UBS Fraud

Walnut Creek, CAA former financial adviser in northern California has been charged with UBS fraud for allegedly transferring money from his clients to his personal bank accounts, Bloomberg reports.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">According to the news provider, Steven T. Kobayashi also recently settled a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit claiming he committed securities fraud and spent $1.4 million in investors' money on cars, prostitutes and gambling.

"It's difficult to imagine a more flagrant abuse of that trust than the manner in which Kobayashi pocketed his customers' money and used it to feed his own habits," Marc Fagel, director of the SEC’s San Francisco office, said in a statement.

According to documents filed in federal court in Oakland, Kobayashi worked for UBS Financial Services in Walnut Creek between 2004 and September 2009. He is accused of starting a company called Life Settlement Partners in 2004 and allegedly using millions of dollars from UBS clients to fund his investment in life insurance policies, the documents show.

UBS is headquartered in Switzerland, according to the company's Web site.