Barron's (March 8, 2018) -- Here’s a good example of an investor who won an arbitration case against his advisor, only to get stiffed. It’s part of a huge problem that legislation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren is designed to address.

Bruce Wilkerson, 53, spent a decade playing for the NFL’s Raiders, Jaguars and Packers, writes ThinkAdvisor. He invested $610,000 with advisor Robert Gist, who proceeded to lose it all in an alleged Ponzi scheme. The episode “deeply affected my life, and my ability to retire in comfort,” Wilkerson said on a press call, according to the publication.

In 2013, Gist settled with the SEC for $5.4 million. The money was to be distributed to Wilkerson and 32 other investors, but that didn’t happen. Wilkerson would get his $610,000 back under Warren’s Compensation for Cheated Investors Act. It directs Finra to create a pool, funded by penalties, to pay unpaid final arbitration awards. 

It’s crazy how often arbitration victors get stiffed. From 2012 through 2016, investors went unpaid 27% of the time, according the Finra Arbitration Task Force. That’s $199 million in unpaid awards. Things got even worse last year, with 36% of arbitration winners going unpaid, according to The Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association.

It appears that Gist wriggled off the hook because Finra canceled his firm’s registration, and in doing so lost its jurisdiction over him, ThinkAdvisor notes. As for Wilkerson, he’s now working as a machinist and doesn’t see retiring before his late 60s.