Two Attorneys, Two Stories: Inside The Fight Over An Advisor’s Missing Millions

Michael Watkins, a Fort Myers, Fla., insurance agent and unregistered financial advisor, has been accused in at least 13 lawsuits of selling securities without a license and diverting millions of dollars from retired and elderly clients into a company he controlled, according to court filings and plaintiff attorneys.

Attorney Matthew Schwartz of the Schwartz Law Firm in Tampa, Fla., who represents nine of the 13 plaintiffs, described the scheme as elder abuse in an interview with Financial Advisor magazine.

However, Watkins’s attorney, Frank Myers of R. Frank Myers in Fort Myers, laid the blame on Watkins’s own former lawyer rather than any scheme against clients.

The alleged scheme described in the lawsuits accused Watkins, who spent time last year and this year in jail on unrelated charges, of a pattern of financial misbehavior. They said that while he holds a Florida 2-15 license, which allows him to sell life, health and variable annuity policies, he was not authorized to sell securities. And yet the plaintiffs said he pitched clients on what he called a “Fidelity bond fund” as a safe way to protect their principal while generating retirement income.

Watkins allegedly directed clients to make checks payable to “Fidelity Investments” or “Fidelity Brokerage Services” and to leave the memo line blank, then filled it in himself with an account number tied to Radiant Private Investment, a company he owns. Those funds would go to a Radiant-held brokerage account at National Financial Services, Fidelity’s clearing arm, according to the filings. At least three of the complaints cite the same account number written on the checks.

Schwartz said Watkins had built a legitimate insurance practice selling real annuities before he began pitching clients on a bond fund “which never existed.” But Schwartz said he also believed that most likely Watkins initially intended to do right by his clients.

“I think he probably thought he could trade the account and make them money,” he said, adding that Watkins was not licensed to do it, had no apparent experience doing it, and lost the money, leaving him to “duck and dodge.”

“These people worked all of their lives and trusted him with these funds. He took it and went to the casino with it, basically,” he said.

But Watkins’s attorney, Myers, disputed that any of it was fraud, saying claims that Watkins gave clients fake account statements are “not true,” and that the account number on client checks was not a personal account but Watkins’s professional tracking number at Fidelity, used by agreement with the firm to keep tabs on investments made for multiple clients.

Clients Sue

The lawsuits reviewed for this story put a range of dollar figures on the alleged losses. Denise Rodriguez, 75, of Columbia, S.C., claimed she gave Watkins $641,345.19 in February 2021, money inherited from her mother’s annuity. She said in her suit that Watkins wired her roughly $3,000 a month from Radiant bank accounts, calling the payments investment returns, until they stopped. She had also granted him power of attorney over her finances in 2019.

Linda Kaminski, a retired Sarasota County, Fla., resident, claimed Watkins sold her a $339,933.46 annuity in 2020, then a year later talked her into surrendering it and handing him $356,940.90 via a check made out to “Fidelity Investments,” which he deposited into a Radiant account. She alleged that he later covered up that deposit with a fabricated account statement and a forged Fidelity letter showing she owned Credit Suisse bonds worth more than $371,000. Kaminski said Watkins returned $150,000 when she needed proof of funds for a 2023 home purchase but has refused to return the remaining $222,130.

Gordon and Colleen Stone, of Venice, Fla., both septuagenarians, alleged in their complaint that Watkins collected four checks from them between 2021 and 2024 totaling $73,700, all under the same pretense. Rafael Pena’s complaint seeks $110,251.74 over a single August 2024 check. A trust managed by Malcolm Clements alleges a $350,000 loss tied to an August 2022 check, and Mark and Peggy Buonsignore’s complaint puts their loss at $185,000.

Schwartz said he represents nine of the 13 plaintiffs, including the Stones; three others are represented by Carlson & Associates, the Coral Gables firm listed on several of the complaints reviewed for this story, and one by attorney David Holley. The cases have not been consolidated.

Civil courts had already entered $3.9 million in judgments against Watkins, with three more pending cases seeking a combined $1.1 million not yet reduced to judgment, putting the total above $5 million, Schwartz said, adding that he has turned away other people who say Watkins harmed them because of doubts about whether any money could ultimately be collected.

Complicating the accusations, Myers said, is that Watkins spent time in jail in 2025 for violating domestic violence injunctions filed by his two ex-wives, including one instance in which Watkins called one to ask her to relay a message to his clients, which she reported as a violation. Those stints kept Watkins jailed for roughly five months last year, during which clients who could not reach him believed he had disappeared with their money and began hiring lawyers, Myers said.

The attorneys then gave two different accounts of what happened next.

Schwartz alleged Watkins transferred between $820,000 and $1.5 million into a trust account controlled by Scott Faden, his lawyer at the time, to get ahead of a garnishment Schwartz’s firm had scheduled for the next day; the exact figure is still being sorted out at an evidentiary hearing, he said.

Faden, who in February was suspended by the Florida Bar for three years for unrelated matters and could no longer represent Watkins, then placed the money with another lawyer whom Schwartz said allegedly invested it in gems. Watkins reached a settlement with the other attorney to regain some of the money, but only part of it was returned, Schwartz says.

Myers’ version of events has Faden urging Watkins to give the money to Faden so he could reduce default judgments that had been determined while Watkins was in jail but that had been for more than clients were owed. Faden said he would correct the amounts and make the distributions, but he never did, according to Myers.

Missing Money

Myers said Watkins has since located roughly $492,000 of the missing money and arranged to return it, and he was expecting a check imminently for deposit in the court’s registry.

He also disputed reporting by local media that quoted Watkins’s deposition describing the transfer to Faden as an attempt to evade creditors, saying that account twisted what his client actually said, and that Watkins meant only that Faden was to properly divide the funds among clients, not conceal them.

A more recent DUI arrest and additional jail time further complicated the dispute with Faden, he said. Faden could not be reached as the phone number for his law practice is out of order.

Local news media reported that Watkins is not currently in jail.

While the lawsuits state that Watkins was not licensed or authorized to sell securities in any capacity, Myers said Watkins had state authorization to sell a limited amount of securities without a securities license, citing a Florida exemption he said covers advisors with fewer than roughly 15 clients and less than $1 million in total investments, which he said Watkins qualified for before his legal troubles began, though he could not immediately identify the statute and Financial Advisor could not confirm it by press time.

Separately, the SEC has been investigating Watkins for more than a year, according to federal court records cited by local Fort Myers news outlet WINK, which reported the agency is examining whether Watkins “may have been running a Ponzi scheme or may have misappropriated investor funds” and has subpoenaed his financial and credit card records. Watkins reportedly has moved to quash those subpoenas on privacy grounds. Multiple former clients have also told local reporters they received letters suggesting the FBI is examining Watkins’s finances.

Financial Advisor could not confirm either agency’s probes into Watkins.