Massapequa financial adviser ordered to pay $7 million after risky investments wipe out clients' savings

A Massapequa financial adviser has been ordered by securities industry arbiters to pay more than $7 million to seven clients whose savings were squandered in risky investments.

A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors LLC and its key officers, Vincent J. Camarda and James E. McArthur, recently lost four arbitration cases brought by their clients, including two couples from Nassau County, according to arbitration documents and interviews.

Camarda, A.G. Morgan’s founder and CEO, and McArthur, its president and chief compliance officer, were suspended indefinitely from working in the securities industry n October by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The suspensions came after Camarda and McArthur failed to pay the judgments handed down by FINRA arbitration panels.

Camarda appears to have other financial problems, too.

The A.G. Morgan building at 5260 Merrick Rd., which is owned by Camarda, along with his home in Amityville, are both in foreclosure, according to filings in state Supreme Court. When a Newsday reporter visited the office building on Monday, the gold-lettered A.G. Morgan sign had been taken down and the furniture removed.

Camarda didn’t respond to multiple emails seeking comment and hung up when reached by phone after the reporter identified himself.

McArthur didn’t respond to email and voicemail messages.

The A.G. Morgan clients brought their allegations of fraud and wrongdoing to FINRA because, when they hired the advisory firm years ago, they agreed to resolve any disputes through the group’s arbitration panels.

The clients, who range in age from 56 to 83, claim to have lost more than $4 million in promissory notes for private equity investment funds that were owned and operated by Camarda. The clients said their monthly payments of between 9% and 11% stopped in late 2023 or last year.

Since then, Camarda has sent dozens of emails pledging full repayment contingent on the completion of several deals — among them a business sale, a new line of credit and the refinancing of existing debt — that he said were being handled by a business associate in Texas, according to emails reviewed by Newsday.

Taking out loans to pay bills

For A.G. Morgan clients, the disappearance of their investment portfolio, which for some represented their life savings, has been devastating.

“We’ve had to take out loans for everything that we do,” said a woman in her 50s from Long Beach, who with her husband lost about $2 million. The couple requested anonymity, saying the woman’s business would be undermined if customers knew about the investment losses.

“I’m working longer hours today to pay the bills because of [Camarda’s actions]. We have a hefty mortgage, high bills, high taxes,” she said in an interview. “I don’t know how much longer I can work at this pace.”

In August, an arbitration panel awarded the couple $2.2 million in compensatory damages plus interest and legal fees.

The couple recalled that when they first met with Camarda in 2020, he assured them his private equity funds would produce a higher return and were safer than the stock market. They said Camarda told them he would invest their nest egg in a mining company that was extracting precious metals in the West.

“In the office, when I asked, ‘Is this safe?’… he put his arms out [like a baseball umpire] and said, ‘Safe’ in a loud voice,” the husband recalled.

'Went to bed millionaires and woke up with nothing'

Steven Toskes, a Florida-based attorney who represented the Long Beach couple in the arbitration, said they and others were told their money was in guaranteed investments when it was in risky investments, such as mining, gold, coffee and business loans.

A.G. Morgan "completely misrepresented the risk of the investments to these people, many of whom are retirees who cannot afford to take a loss … They went to bed millionaires and woke up with nothing,” said Toskes, a founding partner at the law firm Klayman & Toskes.

“These are some of the saddest cases I’ve seen in my 26 years” as a lawyer handling securities arbitration, he said. “Some of Camarda’s clients had known him for 10 years, 20 years. They believed him. They trusted him to do the right thing.”

Toskes represented five of the A.G. Morgan clients who won judgments and is working on 11 more cases.

“It’s going to be hard to get a full recovery [of lost savings] because these are Ponzi schemes," where clients' money was shifted between accounts but never invested, he said. "You don't know where the money is."

Toskes added that the only compensation his clients have received so far has come from two broker dealers who once employed Camarda and McArthur.

Broker dealers settle charges

IBN Financial Services Inc. in upstate Liverpool and Momentix Capital Inc. in New Jersey both reached monetary settlements in return for being removed from the arbitration cases before judgments were issued.

Toskes said the settlement amounts are confidential.

FINRA records show IBN forced Camarda and McArthur to resign as licensed brokers in 2022 after they and the securities firm Par Funding in Philadelphia were sued for fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in Central Islip. Previously, the men had worked at Momentix, also called Traderfield Securities Inc., according to the records.

“A.G. Morgan is an investment advisory firm and couldn’t buy and sell stocks. So, [Camarda and McArthur] had to do it through a broker dealer” such as IBN and Momentix, said Toskes.

An attorney for IBN told Newsday he couldn’t comment publicly, while an attorney for Momentix declined to comment. Both firms, in arbitration documents, denied the allegations brought by the A.G. Morgan clients.

From April 2024 through July 2025, FINRA logged 23 complaints against Camarda, with clients seeking a total of $25.4 million in damages. McArthur faces 17 complaints from the same period seeking a total of $23.1 million.

Clients of financial advisers and investment firms are usually required to resolve disputes via FINRA arbitration panels rather than a court of law. But the arbitration process is more cost-effective and quicker for them, according to Jill I. Gross, a professor at Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law and an expert in securities arbitration.

Gross said the kinds of disputes FINRA typically hears from customers are unauthorized trading, fraud, recommending unsuitable securities or investment strategies, and selling securities not approved by a broker dealer.

“A number of disputes or complaints can lead the SEC and other regulators to shut down the brokerage or take other disciplinary steps,” she said.

Gross, who has served as a FINRA arbitrator since 1999, said customers in cases like that of A.G. Morgan will ask a judge to confirm the arbitration award if the defendants refuse to pay. The collection process may involve the defendants filing for bankruptcy, she said.

Camarda, McArthur and A.G. Morgan hadn't declared bankruptcy as of Monday, according to federal court filings.

Hard to get judgments paid

Whether the A.G. Morgan clients will be made whole is an open question.

“There’s little to no ability to collect because the assets of Camarda, McArthur and the firm are dwarfed by all the financial damage these guys did,” said Dietrich Epperson, a Pennsylvania attorney representing an Oceanside couple who won their arbitration case.

That couple, who are in their 60s, were awarded $600,000 in compensatory damages plus legal fees by an arbitration panel in October. They declined to comment and requested anonymity, saying they’re ashamed to have put their trust in A.G. Morgan.

“Fortunately, my clients aren’t one of the families that lost everything,” Epperson said. “But I’ve spoken with some desperate people on Long Island who have been devastated by this.”

By James T. Madore

james.madore@newsday.comJamesTMadore

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.