Former NYC financier lived the high life in Miami while stealing millions from mother: feds
When former New York financier Brett Thomas Graham moved to Miami in June 2020, he rented an apartment in its signature building, One Thousand Museum, the “exoskeleton” skyscraper overlooking Biscayne Bay.
Graham also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on artwork, first-class travel and Bulgari jewelry for his girlfriend.
But Graham wasn’t just another Manhattan money man who relocated to Miami during the pandemic, federal authorities say. He was ripping off a “close family member” who was widowed in 2017 and sold her New York City townhouse for about $9 million two years later, according to federal court records. The Miami Herald has learned that the family member is Graham’s mother.
Has to pay back $8 million
Graham, 61, faces up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing in September after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud in Miami federal court on Tuesday. Other wire fraud and money laundering charges in his indictment will be dismissed at his sentencing, according to a plea agreement. In addition, Graham must pay $8.4 million in a forfeiture judgment, proceeds of the money he stole from his mother.
A decade ago, in an unrelated civil case, Graham was disciplined by the Securities and Exchange Commission when he headed a New York brokerage firm accused of making misrepresentations in bond sales, according to the agency’s records. The SEC fined Graham about $1.5 million and barred him from acting as a broker or investment adviser or associating with firms that sell securities or provide investment advice to the public.
Got power of attorney
According to federal court records, Graham assisted his mother with retaining a financial advisor in New York in November 2018, a few months before she sold her townhouse in February 2019.
After the property sale, Graham started fleecing his mother while transferring money from her New York bank and brokerage accounts into his own checking account in Miami, according to a factual statement filed with his plea agreement. In 2020, Graham assumed the role of his mother’s power of attorney, which obligated him to act in her best interest.
“Repeatedly, however, the Defendant made material and false representations to Financial Advisor-l and others that he was spending Family Member-l’s money on her behalf, including by making investments and paying for her medical care,” says the statement filed in Miami federal court. “In fact and in truth, he was not.”
The statement — signed by Graham, assistant public defender Elizabeth Blair and prosecutor Eli Rubin — says that in December 2020 Graham asked the financial advisor for $250,000, explaining that the money was needed for his mother’s “higher medical & care expenses.”
In another instance, in November 2022, Graham asked the financial advisor to provide an additional $400,000, noting that the funds were for “amazing” [investment] “opps.”
According to court records, Graham spent his mother’s money on himself, including to pay for his Amex credit card debt, artwork, travel and rent at the One Thousand Museum tower at 1000 Biscayne Blvd. The indictment shows that two wire transfers of $34,000 and $30,000 were made from the mother’s account in New York to the son’s in Miami to pay his lease on an apartment at One Thousand Museum in June 2020 and December 2022.
$2 million in art, jewelry seized
FBI agents, who conducted the fraud investigation, seized about $2 million worth of jewelry and art purchased with the proceeds, authorities said.
Graham’s mother, meanwhile, was forced to move out of her assisted-living facility in New York because she lacked enough money to pay for her rent, according to the indictment. It’s not clear where the widow ended up living.
In another twist in the story, Graham’s mother has accused the New York-based bank, JPMorgan, in a complaint of not doing enough to prevent her son from stealing more than $8 million in her retirement savings, according to FinancialPlanning.
But JPMorgan has countered that the 84-year-old widow has brought her case in the wrong forum. Last year, she filed her claim with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, seeking arbitration in her disputes with JPMorgan, Charles Schwab and the New York-based registered investment advisor Francis Financial.
The mother asserts in her FINRA claim that Graham’s past regulatory troubles with the SEC should have been a “red flag” to JPMorgan, Charles Schwab and Francis Financial when he presented his plans to manage her money.
Instead, the mother claims, they allowed him to move $8.4 million out of her accounts, according to the claim.
