Andrew M. Komarow

Introduction

Andrew M. Komarow, 37, of Avon, Connecticut, an investment advisor and broker-dealer who serviced a range of clients, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford to wire fraud for defrauding three financial services companies of approximately $3.3 million, in a scheme the Justice Department announced on October 22, 2026. Between roughly October 2022 and February 2023, Komarow initiated approximately $8.9 million in electronic fund transfers from his personal bank accounts to multiple, often newly opened, brokerage accounts despite having insufficient funds to support the transfers — exploiting the clearing delay in the banking system to trade with money he did not have. He was arrested on March 2, 2026, and is released on a $50,000 bond pending sentencing.

Background Information

The scheme took advantage of credit extended by the financial services companies and of the gap between the moment an ACH (automated clearing house) fund transfer is initiated and the moment it is posted and cleared. Komarow, whose professional work made him fluent in that machinery, moved approximately $8.9 million through this gap: initiating EFT/ACH transfers from his personal bank accounts into brokerage accounts that were often brand new, with balances in his bank accounts that could not cover them.

He then used the brokerage accounts to conduct high-risk, short-term options trading, attempting to generate immediate profits sufficient to cover the insufficient funds before the transfers failed. The gambit did not pay: through the scheme, the three financial services companies suffered total losses of $3,352,507. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher W. Schmeisser.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Pleaded guilty. Komarow pleaded guilty to wire fraud; sentencing is not scheduled, and the offense carries a maximum term of 20 years.

The conduct to which Komarow admitted was, in essence, a professional’s bet with other people’s float: a licensed investment advisor using the banking system’s clearing delay to place high-risk options trades with funds that did not exist, against institutions that extended credit on the assumption their counterparties were solvent. When the trades did not cover the transfers, the losses — $3,352,507 across three companies — became theirs. The five-month window of the charged scheme, October 2022 through February 2023, compressed roughly $8.9 million in movement into transfers his accounts could not back.

Komarow pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud, a charge carrying a maximum prison term of 20 years. His arrest followed on March 2, 2026 — more than three years after the scheme’s window closed — and he has remained free on a $50,000 bond while awaiting a sentencing hearing that has not been placed on the calendar.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case became public through the District of Connecticut’s announcement of the plea, which laid out the scheme’s mechanics in the plain arithmetic of the losses: $8.9 million moved, $3,352,507 lost, three companies holding the shortfall. No public statement from Komarow or his defense was reported in the release, and the announcement contained no allegation that his clients’ funds were touched — the victims were the financial services companies whose credit and clearing systems he exploited.

The immediate consequences are procedural and severe at once: a felony conviction by plea, release pending sentencing on a $50,000 bond, and a guidelines sentencing to come before Judge Oliver where the government will presumably seek to account for the full $3.3 million in losses. For the three companies, the announcement formalized a loss their own credit systems had absorbed.

Current Status

Komarow has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and awaits sentencing, which is not scheduled. He is released on a $50,000 bond following his March 2, 2026 arrest. The maximum term of imprisonment for the offense is 20 years; the actual sentence will be determined by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher W. Schmeisser following the FBI’s investigation.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Komarow’s professional identity — investment advisor and broker-dealer servicing a range of clients — is the casualty of his own plea: a wire fraud conviction by an investment professional who exploited the financial system’s plumbing is the kind of finding that ends registration, licensure, and client-facing work in the securities industry permanently. The scheme’s record — $8.9 million in unsupported transfers initiated by his own hand — will frame his sentencing, and at 37 he faces up to 20 years on the single count before guidelines mitigation. The three defrauded companies’ $3,352,507 in combined losses stand as the measure of what the clearing-delay scheme cost the institutions that trusted his accounts to clear.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Connecticut, “Investment Advisor Admits Defrauding Financial Services Companies of $3.3 Million” — source