PA bar owner sentenced in financial fraud case

PHILADELPHIA —A Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania man was sentenced Thursday to more than six years in prison following a stock fraud probe led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

William Joseph Boyle, age 47, of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 78 months and ordered to pay $429,000 in restitution, three years supervised release, $1,000 special assessment, and forfeiture of $415,000. He was previously convicted of five counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud, and one count of investment adviser fraud.

Boyle had previously pleaded guilty and admitted that he continued to hold himself out as a stock broker and investment adviser, even after his licenses were suspended and after he was permanently barred by FINRA from working as a stock broker or otherwise associating with a firm that sold securities to the public. Boyle also admitted that he failed to disclose to his clients that he had been barred and his licenses suspended, and also that he defrauded clients, most of whom were elderly, out of over $400,000, convincing them to invest with him and utilize his services as a financial adviser and promising to invest their money in stocks, Pennsylvania municipal bonds, interest bearing investments, and real estate, while in reality Boyle spent almost all of their money on himself, including giving client money to his wife and ex-wife, paying his children’s Catholic school tuition, and purchasing, renovating, and operating a bar called “The Boyler Room,” which Boyle renamed after himself.