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Woodcliff Lake Financial Advisor Charged With Fleecing $1M From Elderly Duo

WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J. -- A Woodcliff Lake financial fleeced two elderly victims of more than $1 million, said authorities who arrested him on theft by deception charges.

Jeffrey Palish

Jeffrey Palish

Photo Credit: MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

Jeffrey Palish, 64, first “failed to make payments on a $100,000 loan that he had received from two elderly clients, a loan which he had failed to disclose to the financial institution at which he was employed,” Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Dennis Calo said Thursday.

“An investigation revealed that, during a four-year period, [Palish] received in excess of $600,000 from the clients,” Calo said.

“The funds were obtained through the conversion of the clients’ stock holdings,” the prosecutor said. “The stocks were sold and the monies were transferred to a second bank where the monies were remitted to [Palish] through checks written by one of the clients.

“Further investigation revealed that, during the same time period, [Palish] initiated approximately 40 unauthorized wire transfers from the clients’ bank account to make payments to his personal credit card account” totaling more than $300,000, Calo said.

In the end, he said, Palish “utilized all of the monies for his own personal benefit and has not repaid or returned any monies to the victims.”

Palish was released on a summons pending a March 7 first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack. 

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