A former Morgan Stanley Dean Witter stockbroker was sentenced this week to almost five years in prison and ordered to pay his former employer $1.5 million in restitution in connection with fraud charges.
Ryan Kimura, 42, of Honolulu, Hawaii, was sentenced to 57 months in prison in federal court on Monday for charges including bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and filing an incorrect federal tax return.
Kimura has been ordered to pay $1.5 million to Morgan Stanley, which has since dropped Dean Witter from its name. He has also been ordered to pay the Internal Revenue Service $505,429 plus interest for tax losses from 2000 through 2007.
The sentencing comes after Kimura allegedly took more than $2.1 million in account deposits from his former wife’s family and misled them about their investments while he was employed as a stockbroker at Morgan Stanley in Honolulu. That included deposits from his former father-in-law and a Japan-based company that he owned, as well as funds from his former mother-in-law, grandmother-in-law and sister-in-law.
Kimura stole $1.5 million from his victims by forging signatures on 206 checks, according to court records. He also mishandled his father-in-law’s company’s funds, including taking money from the company without permission and losing about $360,000 while trading its stock. Kimura earned commissions on those stock trades and also falsified interest earnings reports.
In April, Kimura pled guilty to the charges in federal court. He also was permanently barred in 2009 from associating with any member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Kimura was registered with Morgan Stanley until May 2006, FINRA records show, when he went to work for Sun Life Financial Distributors, where he was employed until December 2007.
Kimura’s actions were not discovered by Morgan Stanley or his former wife’s family until after his 2006 resignation from the firm, according to a Morgan Stanley spokesperson.
“Upon discovering the misconduct in the fall of 2007, Morgan Stanley initiated an investigation of this matter, cooperated fully with the authorities, and amicably resolved this matter with Mr. Kimura’s wife’s family,” the Morgan Stanley spokesperson said. “We are pleased that the court has ordered Mr. Kimura to make restitution to Morgan Stanley for his deplorable misconduct and that justice has been done in this case.”
The case stemmed from an Internal Revenue Service investigation, and could serve as an example to others, according to the U.S. government agency.
“The brokerage industry is an extremely honorable industry, which provides valuable services to the entire world,” Marcus Williams, the IRS special agent in charge of the Pacific Northwest, said in a prepared statement. “However, when a wayward broker embezzles money from unknowing victims, forges signatures on checks, and then cheats on his taxes, that broker can expect to be prosecuted and sent to prison.”
Lorie Konish writes for On Wall Street.
