Pine Brook Man Gets 5 Years for Defrauding Parents of $1.3M

A former financial advisor from Pine Brook was sentenced to five years in state prison for defrauding his parents out of more than $1.3 million while serving as their advisor, Acting Attorney General John Hoffman said Friday.

Superior Court Judge Edward Jerejian in Bergen County sentenced Hugh R. Hunsinger Jr., 50, of Pine Brook, based on his Aug. 6 guilty plea to second-degree theft by unlawful taking, according to a release from Hoffman’s office.

“The victims in this case believed that they could trust their son to invest money on their behalf,” Hoffman said. "The defendant violated that trust and instead cheated his parents out of more than a million dollars.  As demonstrated by the prison sentence imposed today, such blatant disregard for the law will not be tolerated in the state of New Jersey.”

Hunsinger’s insurance producer license will be suspended for five years and he did a consent judgment of $1,354,496 to his parents, according to the release.

“This office will vigorously prosecute heinous behavior such as this, where a financial advisor defrauded his own parents out of more than a million dollars of their hard-earned retirement fund,” Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi said.  “Such defendants deserve prison, as the court appropriately determined in this case.”   

Hunsinger pleaded guilty and “admitted that between Jan. 31, 2005 and July 8, 2011, he transferred approximately $1,354,496 from certain accounts that he was managing on behalf of his parents, without their authorization, to his personal accounts and used the money for his own personal living expenses,” according to the release. 

After the unauthorized transfers, Hunsinger’s parents were left with only a small amount of money in their accounts, according to an investigation by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor. Hunsinger worked as a financial advisor for Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. during this time.