Cold-Caller Swiped $380K, Retiree Says

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) - A cold caller securities peddler bilked an 80-year-old man of $380,000, persuading him to invest in high-risk securitized secondary mortgages even as the financial products were contributing to the collapse of the global economy, the retiree claims in Federal Court.

Robert Schwarzmann, retired owner of a tool-leasing company in McLean, Va., says he was called repeatedly and befriended by David Vynerib, a Connecticut-based, unlicensed securities broker working for various capital funds in New York and Florida.

Playing on Schwarzmann's "advanced age" and "lack of sophistication," Vynerib persuaded him to buy risky securities throughout 2007 and 2008, Schwarzmann says.

Schwarzmann says he lost more than $380,000 on companies that have gone bankrupt, including $200,000 on securitized secondary mortgages at a time when "the capital markets had begun to unravel based largely on securitization of secondary mortgages."

Schwarzmann says Wynerib worked for co-defendants New York-based Axiom Capital, the J. Roebling Fund of New York and Halpern Capital of Florida.

Schwarzmann is represented by George Doumar of Arlington, Va.

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