Wall Financial Adviser Scammed $1.3M From Seniors, Gets 10 Years

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Wall Township man who pleaded guilty to scamming senior citizens, primarily widows, out of more than $1 million through fraudulent investments has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to a report.

Peter Martorana, 63, a financial adviser with an office in the Holiday City residential retirement community in Berkeley Township, must serve a minimum of four years before he can be considered for parole, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press. He also was ordered to pay restitution and forfeit his broker's license, according to the report.

Martorana served as an investment/financial adviser, operating Retirement Benefit Specialist on Jamaica Boulevard in Holiday City, a senior community, Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County prosecutor's office at the time of Martorana's guilty plea.

He pleaded guilty in February to one count of financial facilitation of criminal activity in excess of $500,000, Della Fave said at the time.

He was arrested in July 2013, and investigators found that from December 2006 to August 2013, Martorana had various elderly victims write checks to him and to his business under the guise that he would invest their monies. He never invested the money, but instead used it for his own benefit, prosecutors said.

Martorana originally was scheduled to be sentenced in August, but his attorney, Mitchell Ansell, announced that he was considering filing a motion to have the guilty plea thrown out, and the sentencing was delayed as a result, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Della Fave said the victims all were in their 70s and 80s.

Peter Martorana, photo via Ocean County Prosecutor's Office