Gambling Addiction: Ex-financial adviser gets 6 years for stealing $1.9M

Ex-financial adviser in E. Hanover gets 6 years for taking $1.9M
Written by Peggy Wright Staff Writer

A former financial adviser for an East Hanover company was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for stealing $1.9 million from investors, including his grandparents, to support an online gambling addiction.

“I’ve done a lot of harm,” said Hawthorne resident Daniel J. Trolaro, 35, as he apologized for his 20-month theft spree during sentencing before Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morristown.

“The addiction is a tough one to battle,” Trolaro said, adding that he now is heavily involved in Gamblers Anonymous and finds solace in his church. He is married and the father of three children, including a 16-month-old.

Trolaro pleaded guilty earlier this summer to the theft of $1.9 million between June 2008 and February 2010. While a financial planner, licensed insurance producer and securities dealer employed by Prudential Insurance Co. of America’s West Essex Agency in East Hanover, he bilked nine families, including people from Long Hill and Rockaway.

After Prudential caught Trolaro, he worked as a bartender but has largely been dependent on his wife to support the household, defense lawyer John Bruno said.

State Assistant Attorney General John Kennedy had recommended 10 years in prison. Under the six-year term, Trolaro first will be eligible for parole after serving one year, two months and 14 days. The judge emphasized that he wants Trolaro to start paying restitution.

He was ordered to start paying back his grandparents their stolen $75,000 at the rate of $500 a month within six months of his release from prison. Prudential spent more than $2 million making restitution to victims and wants that money back, so the judge ordered Trolaro to sign a civil consent agreement to restore those funds.

The victims included two widows and a disabled woman who received a settlement from a malpractice lawsuit and trusted Trolaro to invest that money, Kennedy said.

The judge noted how rampant white-collar crime is and how Trolaro betrayed and caused stress to many people.

“There are people who steal money with their hands. There are people who steal with their brains. The impact on the victim doesn’t much change,” the judge said.