United States of America v. Thomas Pipich

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with fraud.

Reported by Kent Morlan

Thomas Pipich, age 74, tole millions of dollars from an investment client in order to conceal losses he incurred on behalf of another client. In 2005, Pipich helped to create an investment fund, BarTom Investments, LLC, into which a friend committed millions of dollars. BarTom thereafter suffered catastrophic investment losses that resulted in it having minimal bank and investment account balances as of May 2017. In an attempt to conceal these losses, Pipich created a sham loan between BarTom and another investment client, and transferred a total of more than $3 million from the other client to BarTom pursuant to this purported loan. He also told a series of lies about the purported loan, including providing false asset summaries that overstated the value of the purported loan and pretending that the loan was secured when it was not. Ultimately, Pipich paid himself more than $800,000 from the proceeds of the purported loan, and lost at least $2.6 million through further investment losses.

“This defendant, a financial advisor, betrayed his friend and client, and he stole millions of dollars,” said United States Attorney Rivetti. “Working with our law enforcement partners, our office will continue to ensure that financial advisors who abuse their clients’ trust in order to enrich themselves will be investigated and prosecuted, and as this case demonstrates, face serious consequences and years of incarceration.”

“Fraud schemes like this one directly jeopardize the savings, retirement plans, and financial security victims spent decades building. The harm from this is absolutely life changing,” said FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Richard Evanchec. “The FBI and our partners will follow every dollar to find anyone who thinks they can manipulate investor confidence to pad their own bank account. Today’s sentencing sends a clear message that you will be held accountable.”

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to 27 months in prison and was ordered to pay more than $4.7 million in restitution on his conviction of defrauding an investment client.