Michael T. Hardman has been convicted in an investment fraud scheme. Hardman was found guilty of two counts of grand theft for defrauding more than 30 Floridians in a fraudulent promissory note scheme.
Hardman targeted elderly clients of his deceased father’s securities brokerage business and members of his Alcoholics Anonymous group, conning them out of their life savings.
A joint investigation revealed that from 2007 to 2010, Hardman issued fake promissory notes in his company, Tech Support Systems, collecting more than $1.75 million from his victims. Hardman is scheduled to be sentenced in April 2015.
“The best defense against fraud is knowledge. I encourage Floridians to fully research any financial product, company or individual to ensure they are licensed before doing business,” said Florida Office of Financial Regulation Commissioner Drew J. Breakspear.
“Thank you to our partners in the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office for their diligent efforts in bringing this case forward,” said Florida Office of Financial Regulation Bureau of Financial Investigations Chief Robert Kynoch. “I commend the hard work of our investigators as well as the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s detectives and prosecutors whose diligence resulted in this positive outcome.”
The Florida Office of Financial Regulation announced the conviction. The Florida Office of Financial Regulation and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office jointly investigated the case.
The criminal case was prosecuted by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office.
Michael Hardman was my financial advisor after my father passed away about 1990. He treated me fairly, I believe, and arranged for my retirement income which, together with my company pension and social security, provided me a comfortable retirement. His name still appears on some of my holdings. I am saddened, indeed, to realize that Michael chose to resort to cheating people when he had such a good business going. He did a great dishonor to his father whom I met one time…