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Press Release

Former UBS Financial Advisor Pleads Guilty to Defrauding over $5 Million Dollars from His UBS Clients

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida

Miami, Florida – German Nino, a former UBS Financial Advisor, has pled guilty in federal court in Miami to defrauding over $5 million from a family who maintained several accounts at UBS.   

As part of his change of plea, from about 2012, and continuing to 2020, Nino, a resident of Broward County, was a financial advisor working at a branch office of UBS Financial Services Inc. in Miami.  Nino oversaw and managed UBS investment accounts for various customers, including three victims who were related and who had various investment accounts at UBS.  Nino was the financial advisor assigned to oversee and manage the victims’ money in the accounts.

From about May 2014 to February 2020, Nino made a total of 62 unauthorized transfers from three UBS accounts belonging to the victims, which totaled $5,833,218.59.  To accomplish the wire fraud scheme, Nino made materially false and fraudulent statements to his victims and concealed and omitted material facts including misrepresenting the true performance, balance, and rate of return of the accounts he managed; forging the signature of his clients on documents purporting to authorize transfers out of the accounts; preparing a fraudulent land purchase contract and forging a victim’s signature on the land purchase contract to make it appear that the victim was purchasing land in Colombia by using money from the victim’s account; removing one of the victim’s email from the victim’s UBS email account profile so that the victim would not receive email notifications from UBS about unauthorized transfers; and preparing fraudulent UBS account statements and client review statements, which falsely inflated the balance and value of the victims’ accounts. 

Nino is scheduled for sentencing on June 21, 2022, before U.S. District Judge Donald L. Graham.  He faces up to 60 years imprisonment. 

Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, made the announcement.

FBI Miami investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Deric Zacca is prosecuting it. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Stone is handling asset forfeiture.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20020.

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Contact

Marlene Rodriguez
Special Counsel to the U.S. Attorney
Public Affairs Officer
USAFLS.News@usdoj.gov

Updated April 14, 2022

Topic
Financial Fraud