Ex-NY financier sentenced to seven years after ripping off $8M from his mother

When he moved to Miami in June 2020, former New York investment manager Brett Thomas Graham rented an apartment in the city’s signature building, One Thousand Museum, the “exoskeleton” skyscraper overlooking Biscayne Bay.

On Tuesday, a Miami federal judge ordered Graham’s immediate surrender to the Bureau of Prisons after sentencing him to seven years for ripping off millions from his mother.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks also ordered Graham to pay back $8.4 million to her — which may prove difficult because he already spent most of that money on luxurious living, credit-card debt, first-class travel, artwork and Bulgari jewelry for his ex-girlfriend, according to court records.

Records show that the ex-Manhattan money man moved to Miami after his mother sold her New York City townhouse for about $9 million in 2019, according to federal court records. The records describe her as a “close family member,” but the Miami Herald has learned that the victim is Graham’s mother.

Graham, 62, faced up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing after pleading guilty in May to one count of wire fraud in Miami federal court. His actual punishment was based on federal sentencing guidelines largely calculated by the sum of money he stole from his mother. Other wire fraud and money-laundering charges in his indictment will be dismissed, according to a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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, Vertical Capital, that was 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.

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 became 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.

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 mother ended up living.

In another twist in the story, Graham’s mother 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 Financial Planning magazine.

But JPMorgan countered that the 84-year-old woman 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 asserted in her 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 claimed, they allowed him to move $8.4 million out of her accounts.