Broker Arrested in 9/11 Widow Swindle

A former broker for MetLife Securities, Inc., swindled the widow of a Port Authority police officer who died at the World Trade Center in the 2001 terror attacks, according to criminal and civil complaints filed Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn.

Kevin James Dunn Jr., 28, of Colonia, N.J., was also charged in a separate but related case by federal securities regulators with defrauding the woman of $248,000, which was part of the $2 million settlement she received after her husband's death. Authorities didn't disclose the woman's name, saying only that she was acquainted with Dunn.

Dunn was arraigned in federal district court in Manhattan on charges that he fleeced the woman of the money after she invested the entire recovery amount with him. His lawyer, Mario Gallucci of Staten Island, said Dunn posted a $300,000 bond today and was released from jail.

Gallucci added that Dunn plans to fight the charges. "There was a relationship and there may have been consent on her part to lend my client the money," he said.

The mail fraud and wire fraud charges against Dunn carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The widow grew up in the same Staten Island neighborhood that Mr. Dunn did, and he was a family friend, according to legal papers filed in the case. Knowing he was in the financial world, she asked him for advice in order to invest the money she had received from the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, and to set aside money for her daughter's college education.

Mr. Dunn, who worked in Metlife's Brooklyn office, stole funds from the women starting in September 2005 through April 2007. According to papers filed in the criminal and civil matters, he fraudulently created a joint account—without her knowledge—in both of their names and forged her signature on wire transfers from the joint account.

He deceived her, the Securities and Exchange Commission complaint said, into providing him with blank checks, which he filled out then deposited in his personal account.

Even though Metlife let Dunn go in February 2007, he continued to defraud her for another two months by pretending he was still employed there.

Daniel L. Zelenko, the commission's branch chief for enforcement in Manhattan, said that the S.E.C. is seeking disgorgement of the $248,000 plus civil penalties.

by Elizabeth Olson