Warrants: Investment adviser schemed clients

RALEIGH, N.C. — Warrants unsealed this week indicate a former investment advisor and securities salesman with a financial company in Chapel Hill was under investigation for fraud.

Investigators allege in the February 2007 warrants that Hugh Anthony Wilson, who was arrested by Morrisville police in January, schemed thousands of dollars from his clients.

One warrant affidavit claims Wilson, while working for Ameriprise Financial Services, sold securities in clients' brokerage accounts to generate cash and on different occasions, transferred money out of the brokerage accounts into a Bank of America account in the name of his brother-in-law, El M. Sejly.

He also had investors wire funds into a SunTrust bank account with the name of his wife, Aicha Z. Wilson, according to the warrants, and several of the investors stated Wilson attempted to pay them their returns with a check with the same name but that the checks were always returned by the bank for insufficient funds.

Some clients of Wilson also told investigators that on several occasions, Wilson borrowed money from them and that funds were transferred from brokerage accounts to the client bank account.

"The clients were under the impression that when the funds appeared in their bank account, that Wilson was repaying the personal loan," according to the affidavits. "Several of the clients also stated that Wilson attempted to pay the loans back with personal checks, however these checks were returned by the bank for insufficient funds."