An elderly widow claims her former banker swindled her out of her nearly quarter-million dollar retirement fund — and used it to finance his lavish wedding in India and buy an expensive headdress for his bride, sources said.
Starting in 2007, Ronak Patel — who worked at an HSBC branch in Midtown — struck up a friendship with Bernadette Kelleher, 72, while helping her with bank transactions, according to papers filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
“I thought he was the best in the world,” Kelleher said.
Patel, 30, had Kelleher fork over $240,000 in signed checks by convincing her that it was a loan that he’d pay back or that he’d invest it for her, says the complaint made to a FINRA arbitration panel.
He cemented his relationship with her, the papers say, by inviting her to India for his wedding.
Later, he asked her to live in his basement — for a rent of $1,800 a month — after she lost her money, the papers charge.
At one point, she said, “He turns the computer around and shows me this beautiful headpiece and tells me it’s $40,000. I was afraid to ask for my money back.”
Patel has since been fired from the bank and barred from the securities industry.
Kelleher’s lawyer, Brian Kennedy said, “HSBC has not been held to account.” HSBC did not respond to calls for comment.
Patel insisted he only took a $100,000 loan from Kelleher and is willing to pay it back.