Ocean Springs retirement investor seeks delay in $1 million fraud trial
GULFPORT -- The attorney for an Ocean Springs retirement investor accused of taking more than $1 million of his clients' money is asking to postpone trial because of plea negotiations.
A federal grand jury indicted Eduardo Diaz in October on four counts of investor fraud and two counts of wire fraud. He was set for trial in December, but the trial was moved to the Feb. 1 court calendar. Diaz has pleaded not guilty.
Since then, two attorneys representing Diaz have withdrawn. Biloxi attorney William Carl Miller is now representing him. In his motion, Miller said Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones has no objection to postponing the trial.
Investor fraud
Diaz, court records say, made fraudulent statements about potential investments to persuade clients to invest large amounts of money, which he later used illegally.
Diaz is accused of using some of his clients' money to "enrich" himself, records say, while other clients' money was used to cover the costs of other investor dividends or to refund or repay previous investors in an attempt to cover up a scheme to defraud them.
The wire fraud is related to check payments, all of which were written for thousands of dollars, from bank accounts in Florida, Kentucky, Arizona and Virginia for deposit into various accounts in Mississippi.
In order to carry out the scheme, records say, Diaz consistently misled clients who had relied on him for years to make sound, secure retirement investments for them.
Diaz is accused of committing the crimes in Harrison and Jackson counties between February 2012 and his Oct. 6 indictment.
He is free on a $25,000 unsecured bond.
Disbarred
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority permanently disbarred Diaz from the securities industry in April 2014 in a settlement agreement.
He did not admit or deny allegations spelled out in a complaint from a client, an Ocean Springs woman, that sparked the inquiry. Records show the woman accused Diaz of borrowing money from her and using it for himself.
The loans and investments involving the woman totaled at least $365,000.
The FINRA report says Diaz talked the woman into investing in a company he said he controlled that had five rental properties. Her investments was supposed to be used to remodel or refinance the properties, the FINRA report said, but Diaz did not own any properties or have any rental property.
FINRA ruled Diaz had made false statements to the woman to solicit $87,000 in loans from her. According to the reports, Diaz would withdraw money from the woman's account at the firm he was working for and transfer it to her personal bank account. He asked her to wire the same money, as well as any loan from her, to his personal bank account. His personal bank account, the report said, contained almost all of the woman's money.
Diaz later repaid the loan using money he generated from selling securities out of the woman's brokerage account without her knowledge. In other words, the report said, he used her own money to pay her back.
'Most interested man on the Coast'
Records show Diaz was a registered investor from February 1987 until January 20, 2013, the FINRA report said.
He was a registered agent with American Express Financial Advisors in Minneapolis, Minn.; Sunamerica Securities in Phoenix, Ariz.; AIG Financial Advisors in Biloxi; Next Financial Group Inc. in Biloxi; and Kovack Securities Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
A company profile says he moved to Ocean Springs in 1987 and helped open the investment retirement firm of Thompson, Diaz, Baxter & Associates in 1993. He opened Diaz Retirement Consultants in Ocean Springs in October 2012.
Over the years in South Mississippi, Diaz made a name for himself in local television ads that referred to him as the "most interested man on the Coast." In one segment, Diaz says: "In life, it's more important to be interested than to be interesting. I'm interested in helping you retire, retire, retire."
This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Ocean Springs retirement investor seeks delay in $1 million fraud trial ."