Fraud Scheme Nets Lafayette Man Prison Term

46 year old Richard Joseph Buswell of Lafayette was sentenced today to 126 months in prison for a fraud scheme that cost investors millions. In addition Buswell was sentenced to three years supervised release and was order to pay a $250,000 fine and over $6 million in restitution. US District Judge Richard Haik handed down the sentence today after a guilty plea on July 24, 2013.

According to evidence presented at his guilty plea, Buswell worked as a licensed stockbroker for his compnay Bowman Investment Group LLC from 2006 to 2009 and used Brookstone Securities of Lakeland, Florida as the company's broker-dealer. In order to earn commissions Buswell engaged in frequent and excessive stock trades. He also placed in clients into high risk investments when the clients did not meet the requirements under federal security laws he falsified documents concerning net worth of clients. Buswell received more than $1.7 million in commissions and clients lost more than $6 million.