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Navy Veteran Loses $400,000 After Lending Life Savings to Builder

By on July 13, 2017

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  An infirm Navy veteran from St. Louis County has lost more than $400,000 after his longtime investment adviser persuaded him to lend his lifetime savings to a homebuilder now involved in a criminal investigation by federal authorities.

Frank B. Steinberger’s complaint to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a nonprofit that regulates investment brokers and dealers, says William A. Glaser, of St. Albans, had Steinberger sell annuities he owned and incur $45,000 in surrender charges to invest in two promissory notes with Everett Builders LLC, a company run by Paul Everett Creager.

According to an online public filing published by the regulatory group, there is an “ongoing federal criminal investigation related to investments involving Paul Creager and his companies.”

FINRA’s Broker Check on Tuesday disclosed a June 9 complaint that matches the allegations in a copy of Steinberger’s complaint supplied by his lawyer. FINRA also says that Glaser has been “discharged” by National Planning Corp., and said that the firm “received an arbitration claim containing allegations that the representative solicited a private investment away from the firm. The representative admitted to personally making a similar private investment that was not previously disclosed to or approved by the firm.”

Glaser, who started with NPC in 2007, ended his employment there on July 5.

The Better Business Bureau of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois warned consumers about Creager and his companies in May, saying that he failed to perform work for which he’d been paid.

Creager denied any wrongdoing to the bureau.

Glaser did not return messages seeking comment. NPC and a lawyer for Creager declined to provide a comment in response to the complaint.

The U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI declined to confirm or deny the report.

Steinberger, 76, served for three years in the Navy and worked for McDonnell Douglas for 40 years helping make airplanes until his retirement around 2005, the complaint says.

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