Published: January 25, 2008 12:20 am            

Man pleads guilty to stealing $2M from elderly

BOSTON — A former Andover, Mass., con artist who was called "a likable crook" by one of his victims has admitted to stealing nearly $2 million from elderly clients who he talked into investing their life savings in a phony firm called Freedom Financial.

Instead of investing the money, John Baldo, 39, spent it on, among other things, fast cars and fast women.

Baldo, of Hackensack, N.J., pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to mail and wire fraud and a violation of the Investment Advisers Act.

He is due back in court in Boston on April 24 for sentencing. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $3 million fine.

Federal investigators said Baldo introduced himself to senior citizens in Massachusetts and Connecticut as a certified financial adviser and promised them handsome returns if they invested with him. They were told If they liquidated their assets and their bank accounts, he would consolidate their money in a high yield annuity account, from which they would receive generous periodic distributions.

But instead of investing their money, Baldo spent it all on himself - on luxury cars, gambling, nightclub visits, trips to Las Vegas and lavish gifts for dancers at strip clubs he frequented, as well as his everyday living expenses.

"He was very smooth and just talked a lot, what seemed to me to be very knowledgeably," Marty Evans told The Eagle-Tribune in a previous interview.

"He was a likable crook," said Evans, an elderly Boxford resident who reported Baldo for forging her signature on a $20,000 check and later depositing it in his own bank account.

Evans recovered her money. But it was her complaint that piqued the FBI's interest in Baldo, prompting an investigation in late 2005 that led to his arrest by FBI agents in Las Vegas about a year later.

The now-defunct Freedom Financial Web site touted Baldo's qualifications as a certified financial planner, a certified senior adviser and a NASD registered principal - all phony claims. State securities regulators said Baldo was never a registered financial adviser in Massachusetts.

But based on these representations, three individuals liquidated their assets and turned money over by check addressed to Freedom Financial. The checks totaled more than $1.9 million from November 2005 to December 2006, according to federal investigators.

Baldo had expensive tastes. His purchases, detailed in a federal court affidavit, included a $150,000 Mercedes-Benz, a $100,000 Range Rover, a $60,000 BMW convertible and $185,000 in jewelry - including a $38,000 18-karat rose gold watch. He also withdrew $470,000 in cash and gambled away $300,000. Some of the jewelry pieces were gifts for strippers he met at the Cabaret Lounge in Peabody.

The New England Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating the case. U.S. Attorney Jon Mitchell in U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan's economic crimes unit is prosecuting the case.



Mark E. Vogler writes for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.

        

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