GARDINER, Maine — An Old Orchard Beach man convicted of defrauding one of his clients was sentenced to three years in prison, with all but 90 days suspended, during a hearing on Tuesday in York County Superior Court.
Thomas E. Skypeck, 53, also was ordered to serve two years of probation. Among the conditions of his probation are that he pay more than $5,000 in restitution and not contact his victim, Maine Securities Administrator Judith Shaw and Attorney General Janet Mills said Thursday in a news release.
Skypeck pleaded guilty in October 2015 to securities fraud, forgery, misuse of entrusted property and theft in connection with his handling of a client’s insurance and investment accounts.
Last week, Skypeck was barred from the securities industry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to Shaw and Mills, Skypeck began working with the client in 2009 in his capacity as a state-licensed broker-dealer agent and insurance producer. He advised the client about her retirement investments, held mostly in annuities.
Skypeck provided misleading information to the client about her annuity contracts in an effort to get her to exchange old policies for new ones.
The client followed Skypeck’s recommendations, which resulted in unnecessary penalties and restricted her access to her money. With each new purchase, Skypeck earned a commission.
Skypeck also instructed the client to withdraw almost $60,000 from one of her annuities and then used most of that money to buy gold and silver coins.
The client later sold these coins and, at Skypeck’s recommendation, used the proceeds to buy almost $68,000 from another precious metal dealer, completing that transaction using his wife’s name and forging her signature on the related documents. He received a commission for the coin sales, as well, and the client incurred a penalty for the withdrawal of the funds.
After having the coins delivered to the client’s home, Skypeck took one box of coins, claiming that he would have them stored securely at a depository. When the client repeatedly inquired about the status of her coins over several months, he gave a variety of excuses as to why they were unavailable, including that he had stored them at his lake house, which was inaccessible due to winter weather.
Skypeck later admitted that the coins were stored in his basement and that he had sold more than $5,000 worth of the coins to cover personal expenses.
Skypeck is no longer licensed with the state Office of Securities as a broker-dealer agent and, in a consent agreement executed in June of last year with the Bureau of Insurance, he agreed to give up his insurance license.
The bureau worked with the companies that issued the client’s annuities to recover $9,820 in early surrender charges on her behalf. Skypeck also agreed to pay a $1,000 civil penalty, as part of the consent agreement, which has been paid in the form of restitution.