The losses range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, affecting as many as 400 clients \u2014 many of them elderly. With their portfolios apparently wiped out, many have been forced to reenter the workforce, take\u00a0on debt\u00a0or lean\u00a0on their children to avoid losing their homes.<\/p>\n
In interviews, clients said they doubt they\u2019ll ever recover their savings. A.G. Morgan appears to have shut down: Its Merrick Road office is empty, the website is offline, and the firm faces mounting legal problems, including fraud charges<\/a> filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2022.<\/p>\n The FBI has been investigating A.G. Morgan since February, according to letters to clients that Newsday reviewed. The letters say\u00a0the clients may be victims \u201cof a federal crime\u201d and note \u201ca large number of victims in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n An FBI spokesperson in Manhattan didn’t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The total number of investors affected remains unclear. In a filing to the SEC<\/a>, A.G. Morgan reported having nearly 390 clients and $175 million in assets at the end of 2023. But in a court deposition that same year, the firm\u2019s founder claimed 1,000 clients.<\/p>\n A.G. Morgan “leveraged everything and now the walls are closing in,” said Tim\u00a0Dennin, a Northport-based attorney representing a retiree who fears she’s lost $450,000 because of the firm’s\u00a0actions.<\/p>\n Dennin said subpoenaed bank records show his client\u2019s money was shifted between accounts \u2014 like in a Ponzi scheme \u2014 but never invested.<\/p>\n “At the end of the day, what money\u00a0is going to be available to compensate the victims?” he said.<\/p>\n Dennin suggested that their best hope may be a federal court-ordered restitution fund, similar to the one created for victims of Jordan Belfort \u2014 \u201cThe Wolf of Wall Street\u201d \u2014 and his Lake Success\u2013based firm Stratton Oakmont. Dennin represented dozens of Belfort\u2019s victims in the 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, with lawsuits and consumer complaints against A.G. Morgan still pending, it\u2019s unclear if \u2014 or when \u2014 victims will see any resolution.<\/p>\n Northport attorney Tim Dennin, who once represented victims of \u201cWolf of Wall Street\u201d Jordan Belfort, is now representing a retiree who said A.G. Morgan wiped out their life savings. Credit: Newsday\/J. Conrad Williams Jr.<\/p>\n Neither A.G. Morgan founder and CEO Vincent J. Camarda nor president and chief compliance officer James E. McArthur responded to repeated requests for comment, including messages left with a receptionist and letters sent via certified mail to their Suffolk County homes.<\/p>\n When a Newsday reporter visited the firm\u2019s Massapequa office on Aug. 6 \u2014 and on multiple occasions in June and July \u2014 no one answered the door. Online advertisements show the property is for sale.<\/p>\n A redacted FBI \u201cPotential Victim Questionnaire\u201d sent to clients of A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors as part of the bureau\u2019s investigation into the firm. Credit: Newsday<\/p>\n One alleged victim, a retiree in western Suffolk County, said she confronted Camarda by phone in February about the disappearance of her multimillion-dollar investment \u2014 and was met with silence. She works part time in sales and requested anonymity, saying that if customers knew about her losses, it could undermine their trust in her recommendations and jeopardize her job.<\/p>\n She and her late husband, himself a longtime\u00a0investment adviser, had been clients of Camarda for years. They were satisfied with his performance and the investment income generated, the retiree wrote in an FBI victim questionnaire obtained by Newsday.<\/p>\n “I trusted Vincent as my husband did,” she wrote. “I asked very few questions as I thought Vincent was always there for me.”\u00a0<\/p>\n As of January, her A.G. Morgan account statement \u2014 also reviewed by Newsday \u2014 showed a balance of $3.2 million and monthly interest payments of $32,545. The portfolio consisted of four funds controlled by Camarda \u2014 AGM Capital, OMNI Diversified, Wilshire Capital and Windsor Capital \u2014 each\u00a0promising annual returns of\u00a0between 9% and 14%.<\/p>\n \u201cSince January 2024, I haven\u2019t gotten 20 cents from A.G. Morgan and my investments,\u201d the retiree said in an interview. Camarda\u00a0“apparently lost all of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She said she has struggled to make sense of the loss.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot understand why this had to happen,” the retiree said,\u00a0shaking her head in disgust.\u00a0“It has to be greed, nothing but greed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Clients, regulators and the courts close in A section of an FBI victim questionnaire in which a retiree details alleged losses tied to Massapequa-based A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors. Credit: Newsday<\/p>\n Camarda founded A.G. Morgan in 2014 after working at several financial services firms, including more than 10 years at American Express Financial Advisors Inc. He grew up on Long Island and earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting at Hofstra University before becoming a financial adviser, regulatory filings show.<\/p>\n Camarda, 61, lives in Amityville\u00a0and has three children. He and his wife divorced in 2011. Camarda lost most of his possessions in two house fires within two years that he said were caused by damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012, according to his 2023 deposition to a SEC attorney and public records.\u00a0<\/p>\n At A.G. Morgan, Camarda, who said in the deposition that he earned $60,000 per month,\u00a0has in recent years steered clients away from stocks, bonds and other traditional investments\u00a0and toward mining, gold, precious metals, palladium, coffee and business loans, which he promised would provide a higher rate of return.<\/p>\n Clients\u2019 money was deposited in investment funds that Camarda started, managed and owned, according to the FBI victim questionnaire.\u00a0<\/p>\n The FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. Federal agents have been questioning alleged victims of Massapequa-based A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors. Credit: Getty Images\/Kent Nishimura<\/p>\n Clients told Newsday \u2014 and alleged in court filings \u2014 that they received monthly interest payments for years, only to see them stop in late 2023 or last year. When the clients\u00a0pressed for answers, they said they were told to be patient\u00a0while one of Camarda\u2019s business partners arranged financing to restart the payments.\u00a0<\/p>\n The clients, frustrated by what one described as \u201cendless lies and nonsensical excuses,\u201d complained to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., which has certified\u00a0more than 100,000 planners nationwide, including Camarda. His refusal to respond to board investigators\u00a0led to the permanent loss of his certification<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n Camarda is among just 63 financial planners nationwide to receive a \u201cpermanent bar\u201d from the board since 2008, according to a Newsday analysis of enforcement actions.<\/p>\n \u201cPermanent bars are rare,\u201d said Leo G. Rydzewski, the board\u2019s top lawyer.\u00a0\u201cCFP Board reserves permanent bars for the most egregious misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n Other A.G. Morgan clients sought recourse through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., which oversees securities brokerages.<\/p>\n From 2024 through June, FINRA logged 19 complaints<\/a> against Camarda, with clients seeking a total of $23.4 million in damages. McArthur, the firm\u2019s president, faces 16 complaints<\/a>, all submitted last year,\u00a0seeking a combined $22.5 million in damages. None of the cases have been resolved, according to the latest available FINRA records.<\/p>\n Many of the FINRA complaints center on the same alleged conduct that led the SEC to sue Camarda, McArthur and A.G. Morgan in June 2022.<\/p>\n The SEC accused the men and the firm of recommending and selling securities without disclosing they owed $750,000 to the issuer, Philadelphia-based Par Funding. That debt created a conflict of interest and remained unpaid at the time, according to the\u00a0suit filed in federal court in Central Islip.<\/p>\n All three\u00a0have denied the allegations, and the case remains pending, according to court records. An SEC spokesman declined to comment.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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