It’s reasonable to assume that an incredible amount of stress comes with the job of being a stockbroker. Having to oversee vast amounts of money in fluctuating markets undoubtedly creates a volatile atmosphere for brokers. When that pressure pushes them over the edge, they become some of the most fascinating disturbed stockbrokers you’ll ever read about.
Why Disturbed Stockbrokers Often Crumble
Long hours, sky‑high stakes, and the constant hum of market tickers can turn even the sharpest trader into a nervous wreck. Add a dash of personal turmoil, and you’ve got a recipe for catastrophe – as the following ten cases dramatically illustrate.
10 Stockburglar
It’s no surprise and quite frankly expected that stockbrokers fall on hard times every now and then. One could only imagine that such was the case for John Patrick Phalon, a 33‑year‑old broker employed by Baltimore‑based Legg Mason.
Phalon had been with the firm for less than six months when, in early 1984, he was arrested in Loudoun County, Virginia, on burglary and grand larceny charges. The conceited, dense broker was clearly ambitious – he tackled the daily grind of Wall Street and, in parallel, stole from ten elite country estates.
His final heist, ten days before the arrest, netted more than $100,000 in jewelry, silver and firearms from a hunt estate near Middleburg, Virginia. Investigators recovered those items and countless other valuables pilfered over the previous four years. After his indictment, Phalon was promptly fired, leaving one less thief on Wall Street.
9 Fatal Attraction
Billionaire Thomas H. Lee felt invincible when he began an affair with Philadelphia stockbroker Laura Goldman in 1993. Eleven months into the liaison, Lee skipped a dinner date, sending Goldman into an unwavering fit of rage and vengeance.
After weeks of threats and monetary demands, Lee agreed to pay $200,000 to Goldman plus an additional $15,000 for her psychiatric care after she signed an affidavit stating he had not raped her. Her threats continued, however, until she was indicted for harassment.
To avoid prosecution, Goldman fled to Israel, demanding millions for mental‑health treatment. The Israelis, seeing the irrationality, extradited her to the U.S. Fifteen years later, Goldman pleaded guilty to attempted extortion and received five years of high‑restrictive probation, barred from contacting Lee, his family, or his business associates, and prohibited from traveling to New York, Massachusetts, or Florida.
8 Justice?
Twenty‑six‑year‑old London broker Daniel Green spent a night with coworkers drinking champagne and snorting cocaine in the offices of StratX. When the party wound down, an employee in her twenties crawled under a desk to pass out. Green seized the moment and sexually assaulted her.
Green insisted the encounter was merely a “conversation,” despite the victim’s claims that she begged and fought to escape. He was asked why the woman was crying during intercourse that was supposedly consensual; Green replied he thought she was in pain because of his well‑endowed penis, which he claimed measured 25 cm (10 in) long and 10 cm (4 in) in girth.
His boisterous self‑confidence baffled the court. Green was sentenced to six years in prison and placed on the sex offender register indefinitely because he “had shown no remorse and behaved with a degree of arrogance.”
7 One For The Road
Anjool Malde, 24, was a talented broker eyeing the youngest vice‑president slot at Deutsche Bank. While climbing the ladder, the Oxford graduate left a harmless joke on a financial‑careers website under a client’s name, writing, “I’m hot, I’m hot.”
The naive prank triggered a suspension while Deutsche Bank launched an internal investigation. Over the next 48 hours, Malde grew withdrawn, and colleagues grew concerned. Two days after being told to leave his office and just two days before his 25th birthday, Malde visited the Coq D’Argent, an elite London restaurant.
After briefly sitting alone with his thoughts, he calmly ordered a glass of champagne as if to celebrate the end of his self‑inflicted turmoil. Moments later, he leapt to his death from the restaurant’s eighth‑floor garden, the champagne glass still clenched in his hand.
6 Animal House
In one of New Jersey’s most exclusive towns sat the home of 66‑year‑old Philip Tamis, a securities broker at Merrill Lynch. Between 1997 and 2005, Tamis and his wife Cynthia grew increasingly despondent over severe financial troubles, filing for bankruptcy twice.
In 2007, authorities raided the couple’s $2.4 million mansion and uncovered an animal house of horrors. More than 100 malnourished dogs and cats were caked in feces throughout the property.
Over the next two days, police and SPCA workers recovered at least 24 animal remains, some dead for over a year. One animal was found in a liquid state of decomposition, prompting health officials to condemn the house due to structural damage caused by the waste.
In the end, Tamis and his wife were indicted on ten counts of animal cruelty.
5 Cell Mates
Joel Seidel, a 65‑year‑old retired broker, had become a nuisance to his community and family, prompting a restraining order against him. After violating that order, Seidel was placed in Camden County Jail, sharing a cell with Marvin Lister, a 35‑year‑old paranoid schizophrenic.
Lister was being held on assault charges and for repeatedly raping a fellow psychiatric patient. Within a 50‑minute span, Seidel’s life collided with Lister’s, leaving the older man bloodied and battered.
Seidel suffered multiple skull fractures, broken ribs, a lacerated liver, and tearing to his heart. As Seidel begged for his life, Lister pitilessly stomped on his frail body for over 30 minutes before guards intervened.
“I felt as big as Shaquille O’Neal,” Lister later said. He was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in 2006. In 2007, Camden County was ordered to pay nearly $4 million to Seidel’s two daughters to settle a federal lawsuit. Lister remains institutionalized.
4 A Troubling End
In 1985, a prominent business magazine named Rene Rivkin “Stockbroker of the Year.” Over the next decade, Rivkin’s life of luxury crumbled after a conviction for insider trading. He claimed he was a victim of a witch hunt, yet was sentenced to nine months in prison.
On his first day behind bars, Rivkin collapsed and was taken to a Sydney hospital where his behavior grew increasingly volatile. Within days, he was described as “crazier and crazier,” shifting from strong to catatonic, even dancing in the hallway with another patient.
Psychiatrist Keith Roberts later linked Rivkin’s erratic conduct to a series of brain tumors detected after his hospitalization. Over the next two years, Rivkin underwent treatment, completed his sentence, and was divorced after 30 years of marriage.
He had long voiced suicidal intentions. In May 2005, seven months after his release, Rivkin took his own life at his mother’s home.
3 Amateur Criminal
Robert Harrison, a married father of two, was a financial guru working as a Merrill Lynch broker when his greed overrode his logic. He lost his job after clients discovered unauthorized trades and inflated fees.
Harrison soon fell into financial straits, fueled by a cocaine and heroin addiction. Forced to move from a million‑dollar home into a modest rental, he sought another route for cash – one that fed his habit rather than his family.
In 2004, he set his sights on 21‑year‑old James Jr., son of real‑estate tycoon Jim Weichert. Posing as a detective, Harrison called the young man, claiming an abandoned Mercedes‑Benz contained paperwork linking to him.
Suspicious, James Jr. called his father, who alerted authorities. Upon Harrison’s arrest, police found a BB gun, duct tape, and a ransom note in his vehicle.
Harrison was sentenced to six years in prison for the kidnapping attempt, theft of investment funds, and cocaine possession.
2 Losing Reality
Self‑employed broker Justin Wicks had built a name working in finance across Paris, London, Miami, and Rome. The 41‑year‑old father of one recently settled back in his hometown of East Yorkshire, when his once‑happy family began to unravel due to a sudden mental‑health collapse.
After a breakdown, Wicks became convinced a Mafia hit‑man was after him. Daily delusions escalated, and he began sleeping with two knives beside him.
The following morning, his wife Chiaki Yoshifusa‑Wicks was awakened by his frantic rant about imminent danger. He continued scribbling on a piece of paper, then locked himself in the bathroom.When Chiaki forced the door open, she discovered the unthinkable: her husband lay dead in the shower, multiple self‑inflicted stab wounds to his throat. A six‑page suicide letter rested on the radiator, leaving his loved ones with endless questions.
1 Family Matters
Stockbroker William Henry Richardson and his wife crossed paths at a Hobart shopping centre in Tasmania, Australia, shortly after the wife secured a family‑violence order against him. The order barred Richardson from speaking to his wife and their two children.
Undeterred, Richardson tried to talk to his frightened family from a distance at the shopping centre, but his words fell on deaf ears. He then took his shopping cart to his car to unload his purchases. Minutes later, he returned to the store, bought an axe, and launched a brutal attack.
Without warning, Richardson struck his wife with five blows to the head and body. In a manic, psychotic rage, he forgot to remove the axe from its bag. Meanwhile, his terrified children watched, pleading for their mother’s life.
Miraculously, Mrs. Richardson survived, though she now requires ongoing psychological treatment. William Richardson was found guilty of grievous bodily harm and sentenced to seven years in prison, eligible for parole in four and a half years. He was found not guilty of attempted murder.