CFP suspends Texas advisor amid Colombia 'femicide' scandal

Photo by Scott Wenger
Scott Wenger

A sordid case involving accusations of "femicide" against a former Vanguard advisor accused of murdering his girlfriend in Bogota, Colombia, has resulted in a temporary suspension of his planning certification. 

The CFP Board announced on Feb. 28 that it has suspended the certification of John Poulos, an advisor formerly with Vanguard Marketing Corporation, pending further investigations into the criminal charges he's now facing in Colombia. According to various media reports, Poulos is accused of murdering his 23-year-old girlfriend, Valentina Trespalacios, in a Bogota apartment sometime on the night of Jan. 21 or early on Jan. 22, putting her body into a suitcase and disposing of it in a dumpster near the city's El Dorado International Airport.

The same day, surveillance footage showed Poulos leaving the apartment with a large blue suitcase. He flew to Panama and attempted to board a separate flight to Turkey but was arrested by Panamanian authorities. He was later charged in Colombia with femicide — essentially a hate crime against women — and obstruction of justice, according to the CFP Board.

Poulos was a representative of the Scottsdale, Arizona, branch of Vanguard Marketing — an institutional brokerage whose parent company is financial services firm Vanguard Group — from April 2022 to February this year, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's BrokerCheck database. Before that, he worked at Northwestern Mutual Investment Services offices in Franklin, Wisconsin, from March 2011 to November 2020, and in Milwaukee from August to December 2009, according to BrokerCheck. The CFP lists Poulos' current residence as being in Colleyville, Texas, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth.

When Poulos was at Vanguard, he was listed as both a broker with FINRA and an investment advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He has since lost both registrations. Vanguard did not respond immediately to questions about Poulos. 

The CFP Board, a self-governing body that sets training and competency standards for planners who want to hold themselves out as certified financial planners, is now conducting its own proceedings to decide if Poulos should be permanently stripped of his CFP credential. He could have it reinstated if he can prove he was never the subject of a criminal conviction or if any conviction is eventually vacated or reversed. Poulson, who pleaded not guilty and is still being held in Colombia, faces up to 40 years in Colombian prison if convicted, according to media reports.

The CFP Board said in a statement that a hearing panel of its Disciplinary and Ethics Commission decided to suspend Poulson's certification, effective Feb. 17, after finding that his "conduct poses a significant threat to the public or that his conduct significantly impinges upon the reputation of the profession and upon the CFP certification marks."

"Femicide" is not officially a crime in the U.S. but is recognized in 17 Latin American countries in an attempt to curtail men's acts of violence toward women. But that doesn't mean it's not a cause for concern in the U.S. A September 2022 report from the nonprofit Violence Policy Center found that 2,059 women were murdered by men in 2020, or at a rate of 1.34 per 100,000. That was up 24% since 2014, when the rate was 1.08 per 100,000.

Separately, the CFP Board announced that it had also temporarily suspended effective on Feb. 1 the certification of the Wexford, Pennsylvania, advisor Kenwyn Belkot for not responding to FINRA requests for information. FINRA permanently deregistered Belkot, president of LPL Financial-affiliated advisory firm Freedom Financial, on Jan. 17. 

Belkot's BrokerCheck page said he was barred from FINRA for failing to request the termination of a temporary suspension of his FINRA registration within three months. The CFP in a statement said the temporary suspension went into effect on Nov. 7, but neither it nor BrokerCheck indicates why.

A FINRA spokeswoman referred back to the BrokerCheck listing. Attempts to reach Belkot by phone and email were unsuccessful. 

BrokerCheck said Belkot has been in the industry for 39 years. His affiliation with LPL Financial, which provides various support services to independent advisors, lasted from September 2004 to March 2022. Before that, he was with FSC Securities in Atlanta from 1996 to 2004, American Express Financial Advisors and IDS Life Insurance in Minneapolis from 1982 to 1996, American Express Service Corporation in Minneapolis from 1992 to 1994 and IDS Financial Services in Minneapolis from 1982 to 1986.

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