Financial adviser admits ripping off elderly client

A financial adviser charged with stealing more than $550,000 from an elderly client has pleaded guilty.

Jon Schmidhammer entered his plea Tuesday morning in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to a count of unlawful securities practices. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped a theft charge that carried a maximum penalty of 11 years in prison.

Now, he faces a maximum of eight years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000. Judge Mark Serrott warned Schmidhammer that he needs to start paying restitution.

“If you haven’t personally paid some money, I promise you prison,” Serrott said.

Schmidhammer, 62, of Dublin, was arrested in July after Upper Arlington police said he confessed to stealing from a client. Police said they were alerted by PNC Bank officials, who met with them and the 81-year-old woman about suspicious bank activity and checks written on her account. She told them she had not consented to money being taken from her account.

Police said an investigation revealed that Schmidhammer took $554,000 from the woman’s accounts over 1 years. Police said Schmidhammer confessed to taking the money by transferring it from another financial institution to a PNC Bank account and then withdrawing it.

“He was basically living off her,” said Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Blake.

Schmidhammer made the woman, whose memory was faulty at times, sign blank checks, which he then used to pay his bills. “He used the money to pay for personal expenses, gambling and family expenses for his girlfriend and children,” Blake said.

Judge Mark Serrott scheduled sentencing for May 4, following a pre-sentencing investigation.