Mich. Advisor Sentenced In $1 Million Fraud Scheme

Editor’s note: Ash Brokerage says the information previously released by the FBI is incorrect in that Lowder was never operated an office for Ash Brokerage and he was never an Ash Brokerage employee. To read a corrected news release, click here. For Ash Brokerage’s response, click here.

William Edward Lowder of Williamsburg, Mich., was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison for defrauding several clients, many who were elderly, of more than $1 million as part of a wire fraud scheme that he committed while he operated Lowder Insurance, officials announced.

Lowder’s sentence included a 36-month concurrent sentence on a separate charge of filing a false tax return in 2008, according to information provided by the Michigan Attorney General. As part of his sentence, Lowder was ordered to pay restitution of $1,567,908 and to complete 300 hours of community service after serving his term in prison.

Lowder was a licensed insurance agent and annuities producer. The attorney general said that, beginning in 2001, Lowder began defrauding several of his elderly clients by convincing them to liquidate existing annuity investments under the promise that the proceeds would be reinvested in annuities earning higher rates of return. After the clients liquidated their annuities, Lowder convinced them to provide the proceeds directly to him for reinvestment. Instead of reinvesting the proceeds, Lowder deposited the proceeds into his own bank account. To conceal his fraud, Lowder provided these clients with false statements of account.

Between 2001 and 2009, Lowder stole more than $1 million from his clients. Lowder admitted that he did not claim the amounts stolen from his clients as income on his U.S. individual income tax returns from 2006 to 2009.