Albany Brokers Sentenced For $4M Ponzi Scheme

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Dave Lucas

Published August 7, 2013 at 4:26 PM EDT

Two upstate New York investment brokers have been given federal prison sentences for diverting more than $4 million of their clients' funds to pay personal expenses, their firm's employees and its preferred clients.

Local media outlets report that 65-year-old Timothy McGinn of Clifton Park was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years and 68-year-old David Smith of Saratoga Springs got 10 years. A federal judge in Utica also ordered them to pay $5.7 million in restitution and costs.

They were convicted in February on multiple counts of mail and wire fraud, securities fraud and filing a false income tax return.

Authorities say the now-defunct securities firm the two men founded had diverted the funds between November 2008 and April 2009, when it shut down.

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Dave Lucas

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.

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