Rhonda Breard Investors Victims of Fraud

An investigating on behalf of investors with Rhonda Breard and Breard & Associates Wealth Management over potential claims against ING Financial Partners on behalf of customers of Rhonda Breard and Breard & Associates Wealth Management for allegedly defrauding investors was announced.

Rhonda Breard, a Kirkland broker, has been under investigation by law firms since millions of her clients' dollars went missing. Breard has built her career on targeting mostly wealthy clients. But Ms. Breard may have converted $8.31 million from more than 20 ING clients for her own personal use and to maintain an extremely lavish lifestyle at the expense of her investors. She owned several homes, one in an area known as "The Garden of Eden," as well as a residence in Redmond, Washington worth approximately $5 million. She also owned eight cars, multiple jet skies, a fleet of six snowmobiles and a motor home. Mrs. Bread reportedly for instance flew her girlfriends all down to Las Vegas, paid for airfare, clothing, and nightclubs.

We are investigating those losses incurred by investors who entrusted their hard-earned money. Clients of Breard say that they received statements in the mail which showed that the money they invested with her had been deposited into an ING account. However, it appears that some of those documents may have been falsified or altered in some way, so the investigations. Some of those clients have reported that they have lost everything. One investor reported that his life savings of $856,000 disappeared after he invested it with Breard. He said that "this is [his] retirement. This is all off [his] retirement".

Rhonda Breard was registered with ING Financial Partners (NYSE: ING) until February 10, 2010, the same say reports have surfaced that Mrs. Breard may have attempted to take her own life. Her Washington office has been shut down, her firm's website is “under construction”, and her Facebook page has been removed. She was a licensed broker in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
But a review of Breard's securities license reveals a history of several customer complaints as well as regulatory actions, dating back to the early 1990s. On May 26, 1993, Ms. Breard was alleged to have used unauthorized discretion in client accounts and later fined. Prior to February 10, 2010, she had previously been suspended by FINRA and had multiple customer complaints. These and her lavish lifestyle are all potential “red flags” and ING Financial Partners was obligated to properly supervise the practices and activities of Mrs. Breard during the time that she was registered with the firm, so the investigations. Therefore the investigation also focuses on whether ING failed to reasonably supervise Ms. Breard. In addition it has also been reported that securities regulators and other agencies are investigating Mrs. Breard's practices.