This week marks the start of a trial between the Securities and Exchange Commission and a New York broker accused of taking part in a plot to profit from the deaths of terminal patients through variable annuity sales.
The SEC alleges Moshe Marc Cohen, formerly a broker at Woodbury Financial Services, of lying to the firm in order to receive its approval to sell the annuities. The agency opened the case in March, claiming that Michael Horowitz, a Morgan Stanley broker from Los Angeles, put together the plot to profit from the benefits and enlisted Cohen as a partner in his scheme. Both brokers allegedly falsified the forms they gave their respective firms to review. Together, the two generated more than $1 million in sales commissions, the SEC said.
