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Beverley Schottenstein

VIDEO: At 93, She Waged War on JPMorgan and Her Grandsons

Bloomberg Watch Article

Video courtesy of Bloomberg News

Beverley Schottenstein

The Grandmother Who Won Her Elder Fraud Case Against Her Grandsons

forbes

by Richard Eisenberg – May 28, 2021

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‘Friends Talk Money’ podcast hosts share cautionary advice based on the Beverley Schottenstein story.

elder fraud Beverley schottenstein

Wealthy Beverley Schottenstein won a landmark case against her grandson brokers

The Beverley Schottenstein $80 million elder financial fraud story is one you won’t believe. But, as my “Friends Talk Money” podcast co-hosts and I explained in our two latest episodes, it’s one you need to know about to protect your parents from becoming victims themselves.

Schottenstein, 94, recently won $19 million in her arbitration case against J.P. Morgan Securities and her grandsons Avi and Evan Schottenstein, her brokers there for five years, ostensibly managing her millions. (Schottenstein is matriarch of the family’s Columbus, Ohio retail dynasty, whose stores included Value City and American Eagle Outfitters AEO -1.5%.)

Problem is, the grandsons wouldn’t tell their grandmother what stocks they were buying and selling. They made hundreds of transactions this way, Schottenstein said. Read more

Beverley Schottenstein

At 93, She Waged War on JPMorgan—and Her Own Grandsons

Bloomberg Watch Article
By Tom Schoenberg – February 17, 2021

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Click here to listen to the companion
audio file for the Bloomberg article.

Beverley Schottenstein said two grandsons who managed her money at JPMorgan forged documents, ran up commissions with inappropriate trading and made her miss tens of millions of dollars in gains. So she decided to teach them all a lesson.

Beverley Schottenstein

Beverley Schottenstein with her grandsons Avi, left, and Evan, right, from a family photograph.
Source: Courtesy Beverley Schottenstein

Beverley Schottenstein was 93 years old when she decided to go to war with the biggest bank in the U.S.

It was a June day, and the Atlantic shimmered beyond the balcony of her Florida condominium. Beverley studied an independent review of her accounts as family and lawyers gathered around a table and listened in by phone. The document confirmed her worst fears: Her two financial advisers at JPMorgan Chase & Co., who oversaw more than $80 million for her, had run up big commissions putting her money in risky investments they weren’t telling her about. It was the latest red flag about the bankers. There had been missing account statements. Document shredding. Unexplained credit-card charges.

Although some relatives urged Beverley not to make waves, she was resolute. What the money managers did was wrong, she told the group. They needed to pay, she said. Even though they were her own grandsons.

And pay they did. With the help of her lawyers, Beverley dragged her grandsons and JPMorgan in front of arbitrators from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra. She sought as much as $69 million. After testimony that spread over months and ended in January, the panel issued a swift decision in Beverley’s favor. Read more