A Massapequa-based financial advisor is in hot water following claims that his company lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments.
Vincent Camarda, the founder and CEO of A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors, has been accused of misappropriating money from at least 20 clients.
One former client, Kathleen McCauley of Farmingdale, sued Camarda to the tune of $450,000 in July 2024, alleging that her retirement money was mismanaged.
McCauley, in her late 60s, had entrusted the sum to A.G. Morgan to secure her retirement. The lawsuit states that Camarda told her the investment would go into “rare earth minerals, limestone, and kiln dust” and would provide a consistent income of $3,000 a month.
McCauley retired in September 2023. Between February and December of that year, she received the promised sum, but the money stopped coming by January 2024, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit claims that in May of 2024, McCauley requested that all of her money be returned. After correspondence with Camarda provided no resolution, she decided to sue.
Upon calling a phone number associated with the firm, the person who picked up confirmed it was the line for A.G. Morgan but hung up when asked for comment on the allegations.
McCauley is hardly alone in her discontent with the financial planner.
Beginning in May 2024, nineteen complaints were filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) implicating Camarda. Among the grievances listed were breach of contract, fraud, and negligence.
All told, the nineteen complainants are seeking almost $21 million in damages, according to FINRA.
In a filing with the SEC dated to March 2024, A.G. Morgan was said to have almost 400 clients. It is unclear how many might have been affected by the alleged wrongdoing.
Camarda and his business have had trouble brewing for a number of years.
A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dating back to 2022 implicated him and James McArthur, A.G. Morgan’s former compliance officer, in a scheme to sell unregistered securities to clients for personal profits.
The SEC complaint states that the men raised more than $75 million from 200 investors, which they funneled into lending company Par Funding. Allegedly, Camarda and McArthur pocketed $7 million for doing so.
A.G. Morgan was also in debt to Par for a time, something that the SEC said the company failed to disclose to investors.
In July 2020, the SEC placed Par Funding into receivership following an investigation that revealed the business was essentially a Ponzi scheme, meaning that returns to earlier investors were funded by new investors rather than from legitimate profits.
Par Funding’s former CEO, Joseph LaForte, was sentenced to more than 15 years of imprisonment in March for fraud.
The SEC complaint about Camarda and his dealings with Par prompted an interim suspension of his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) status in August 2022 by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, a nonprofit that sets and enforces requirements for the profession.
In April 2025, Camarda was permanently barred from CFP status by the Board following additional complaints made to the organization.
Beyond the issues in his professional life, Camarda appears to be dealing with legal trouble related to his personal spending, as well.
A complaint filed by American Express National Bank in Suffolk County on June 2 claims he has an unpaid balance of almost $70,000 across two credit accounts.
The lawsuit states that Camarda last made payments in July 2024 and has since defaulted on both accounts.
The office formerly occupied by A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors was listed for sale on July 15.
