Adviser who stole the identity of dead baby pleads guilty to fraud

A former financial adviser and registered representative who reportedly hid his criminal past by using a dead infant’s identity pleaded guilty last Thursday to several fraud charges.

Joseph Bonanno of Canton, Ohio, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Ohio to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, two counts of making a false statement and one count of making a false statement in an application for a U.S. passport.

“After a review of the government’s evidence, it was determined that a guilty plea was appropriate,” said Kristina Supler, an attorney at Ian N. Friedman & Associates LLC of Cleveland, which represents Mr. Bonanno.

Mr. Bonanno had been indicted in April on charges of assuming the identity of Timothy W. Hyde, who was born Feb. 3, 1976, but died shortly after birth, according to published reports.

Mr. Bonanno maintained the guise from 1992 until late last year.

Shortly after Christmas, the de-ception began to unravel. After be-ing summoned to Mr. Bonanno’s home for a domestic dispute, police arrested him and took his fingerprints.

When those prints were checked against a national database, police discovered that Timothy W. Hyde was actually Mr. Bonanno, wanted on larceny charges in Massachusetts going back to 1989.

While masquerading, Mr. Bonanno had a flourishing career as an adviser.

In 2001, he founded Hyde Financial Inc. in Belden Village, Ohio, which is now known as Helios Investments Inc. The firm manages $63 million in client assets, according to SEC filings. Helios Investments declined to comment on the case.

Most recently, Mr. Bonanno was affiliated with Cadaret Grant & Co. Inc. of Syracuse, N.Y.

Art Grant, that firm’s chief executive, said that Mr. Bonanno was a productive broker who did a good job managing his clients’ money.

“We did our normal background checks,” Mr. Grant said. “We don’t see anything wrong with the brokerage accounts.”

Mr. Bonanno was affiliated with Cadaret Grant from January 2007 until the end of last year and hasn’t been affiliated with a broker-dealer since then.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 22, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bridget Brennan.

“There is a mandatory term of two years in connection with the aggravated-identity-theft count,” she said. “He could face additional time for the other counts.”

E-mail Sue Asci at [email protected] and Bruce Kelly at [email protected].