by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Steven Kobayashi, founder of Life Settlement Partners, LLC and a former financial advisor at the UBS Financial Services LLC office in Walnut Creek, California has pleaded guilty to one count each of money laundering and wire fraud. Instead of entering his prime earning years, Kobayyashi will be going to prison for 65 months for his admitted crimes and pay $5.4MM in restitution to his victims.
According to a June 9, 2011 report in FA News, citing prosecutors, "between 2006 and 2009, Kobayashi transferred over $5.4 million in client funds to his bank accounts, prosecutors said. In March he settled a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit alleging he misappropriated $3.3 million in a scheme that included bilking investors in a private investment fund and spending $1.4 million of their money on cars, prostitutes and gambling. He didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing".
U.S. v Kobayashi, 11-106 and the SEC case is U.S. v Kobayashi, 11-981, in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).
Life settlement companies purchase the rights to life insurance death benefits from those who wish to sell them from policyowners who no longer need the policies or who want to raise liquidity through such sales.
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