Financial adviser in Ohio charged with stealing more than $500K

COLUMBUS (AP) — A financial adviser accused of stealing more than a half-million dollars from an 81-year-old client’s account has been indicted on felony charges.

A Franklin County grand jury on Monday indicted 62-year-old Jon Bret Schmidhammer, of the Columbus suburb of Dublin, on one count of theft from a person in a protected class and one count of unlawful securities practices.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien says Schmidhammer was financial adviser to the woman. O’Brien says Schmidhammer transferred more than $500,000 from the woman’s investment accounts to her bank accounts from January 2014 to July 2016 and wrote checks to himself or paid personal bills with those funds.