Fiscal adviser accused of theft

The adviser to a 79-year-old retiree is accused of stealing $30,000 by using intimidation, coercion or threats of harm.

By RICHARD DANIELSON, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 30, 2003

PALM HARBOR -- A financial adviser has been charged with grand theft in connection with a piece of advice he gave an elderly client last year.

Cosign these loans for me, Dean Lee Porter told the 79-year-old Palm Harbor retiree, or I'll "knock the s---" out of you, according to Pinellas County sheriff's detectives.

Porter, 40, of 14054 102nd Ave. N, Largo, was charged Tuesday with stealing $30,000 by using intimidation, coercion or threats of bodily harm. The Times is not identifying the man because of the nature of the case, which started out as an investigation into exploitation of the elderly.

The client, a retired engineer, met Porter at a financial seminar several years ago. Porter got the client to sign a power of attorney form in November 2000, sheriff's officials say. Porter later had his name put on several of the man's bank accounts and used the client's car as collateral for a loan.

Porter also used the client's credit cards, according to attorney Mark Brandt of Dunedin. Porter acknowledged using $500 of the client's money to take his family to Ruth's Chris Steak House, he said.

"He was certainly taking severe advantage of my client, in my estimation," Brandt said.

The problems came to a head last September when Porter met the man at the doctor's office and had him go to a bank in Tampa. There, the retiree signed a $133,000 mortgage on his house, which he owned free and clear, Brandt said.

At the bank, the man signed the papers but told bank employees he knew nothing about the loan and was signing under duress, sheriff's Sgt. Greg Tita said. On the way home, Porter yelled at him for embarrassing him at the bank, Tita said. The man called Brandt soon after and the mortgage was canceled.

Porter had planned to use the loan to buy three small rental properties in Clearwater, according to sheriff's officials, but Brandt said there is no written agreement for such an investment.

In an arrest report, sheriff's Detective Mike Nawrocki said that "each time the victim resisted the suspect, the suspect verbally abused the victim in public, and privately threatened to 'knock the s---' out of the victim if the victim refused to cooperate."

Brandt said Porter acknowledged that he should repay his client's money, and returned $10,000. Another $30,000 is still missing.

Porter, who was released from the Pinellas County Jail after posting $10,000 bail, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

-- Richard Danielson can be reached at (727) 445-4194 or danielson@sptimes.com .

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