A former Chicago-based Citi vice president and wealth advisor defrauded clients of almost $1.5 million while soliciting them to bankroll her fledgling career as a movie producer, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Federal prosecutors charged Helen Grace Caldwell with convincing numerous elderly clients to invest in her film productions between 2014 and 2023, promising them returns on their investment.
But according to the charges filed in Illinois federal court, Caldwell knew clients wouldn’t be getting any money back.
Caldwell joined the industry in 1992, working her way through short stints at a number of firms (including Signator, Banc One and Chase Investment Services) before joining Citigroup in 2012, where she stayed for about nine years, according to her BrokerCheck profile.
But Caldwell also worked as a film producer on the side via her company Canal Productions, concentrating on horror films, according to her IMDB page. Her credits include the vampire film “Marked” and “Hunter,” which centers on a martial artist avenging his family against zombies, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Caldwell’s employer and her victims are not named in the DOJ document, but the Sun-Times reported allegations against her in August of last year, detailing a lawsuit filed by Cook County’s public guardian’s office against Citigroup and Caldwell. Her victims reportedly included an older client who lost her savings and is currently living in a nursing home with dementia.
According to the DOJ, Caldwell would misappropriate her clients’ funds by transferring it from the bank account for Canal Productions into her own accounts or to third parties, where she used the money for personal purposes (she would also use debit cards connected to Canal’s bank accounts for her own use).
In another instance, Caldwell allegedly lied to an unnamed film producer, claiming an unnamed client was asking for a refund of their investment in the producer’s film. Caldwell claimed she would transmit the refund from the producer to client and claimed she’d already sent the client an advance on it. In reality, the client hadn’t asked for a refund, and Caldwell intended to pocket the producer’s money for herself, according to the DOJ.
The public guardian’s office in Chicago brought their suit last summer, arguing Citigroup fell short on the job of policing one of their own, though the bank argued in probate court that they shouldn’t be held liable for Caldwell’s conduct, according to the Sun-Times. Reporters found that Citi continued to approve her outside business in the film world during the time she was using clients’ funds.
The bank eventually reported Caldwell to Illinois’ Department on Aging’s Adult Protective Services (APS) division in March 2022, after a family member of one of her clients made numerous complaints to the bank. An APS probe eventually led to the public guardian’s suit, according to the Sun-Times.
In August 2022, Citigroup filed results of an internal review finding that Caldwell did not “adequately disclose” her outside business activity to the firm, the Sun-Times reported. A spokesperson for Citi declined to comment for this story.
Caldwell briefly worked for Wells Fargo after leaving Citi in 2021, but was fired in 2022 after a review questioned the accuracy of disclosures she made detailing her compliance with outside business policies. (FINRA barred her from the industry last year after she declined to give on-the-record testimony about the Citigroup and Wells Fargo findings.)
The DOJ charged her with wire fraud, and she faces as much as 20 years in prison. Caldwell’s attorney told the Sun-Times last week that she intends to plead guilty.