Jury Indicts Ex-Broker in Fraud Case : Brokerages: The often-quoted market analyst is accused of plotting to forge a client’s signature to discredit her claim against him.
Charles M. Lewis, once a top-producing Shearson Lehman Bros. broker and an often-quoted commentator on the stock market, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to defraud a former customer through forgery.
The indictment, returned in Manhattan, charges that the 63-year-old ex-broker conspired with a Shearson compliance officer to forge the customer’s signature on a document. They allegedly were trying to concoct false evidence to use in defending a large arbitration case filed against Lewis by the customer, Carole Davis.
At the time, Davis was seeking more than $2 million in damages, accusing Lewis of excessively trading her account to generate commissions for himself. After the allegedly false document--which stated she knew and approved of the unusual trading in her account--was submitted to the arbitrators, Davis eventually was awarded $70,200.
Lewis and his attorney, Ronald Russo, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. Previously, Lewis had strongly denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with customers.
Lewis figured prominently in a Times series last July on brokers with top Wall Street firms who had been the frequent targets of customer complaints and critical judgments. From 1989 to the middle of last year, judgments in four arbitration cases against Lewis cost Shearson and Lewis $315,000.
The series reported that forgery was common in the brokerage industry.
Lewis was often quoted as a market analyst by USA Today columnist Dan Dorfman and several other newspapers.
The new indictment issued Tuesday superseded one returned in January. Then, the federal grand jury charged only the Shearson compliance officer, Edward Coyle, 36, who was accused of signing Davis’ name to the false document.
Coyle has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
The new indictment provides added details of the alleged scheme. Prosecutors charge that Lewis apparently intended to pay Coyle for falsifying the document and for lying under oath about it in the arbitration case.
According to the indictment, Lewis took out a $50,000 life insurance policy with the intent of naming Coyle as beneficiary. It also charges that he paid Coyle $6,000.
The specific charges against Lewis include conspiracy, mail fraud and maintaining false books and records. If convicted on all counts, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and fines of $1.75 million.
Lewis left Shearson under pressure at the end of 1992. Shearson’s retail brokerage business has since been sold to Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co.
