Bruce E. Hammonds, a former Merrill Lynch & Co. employee in San Antonio got Merrill Lynch clients to invest in a partnership he controlled

Bruce E. Hammonds, a former Merrill Lynch & Co. employee in San Antonio, admitted that for more than two years, starting in August 2006, he got Merrill Lynch clients to invest in a partnership he controlled without the knowledge of the investment giant or the investors who thought the money was going into a Merrill Lynch fund.
The firm fired him in June for co-mingling investor funds with his personal funds and not disclosing the partnership.After his termination, he kept soliciting investors for the partnership, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a filing with the court.Hammonds used the money for himself and gave some to relatives and business partners, prosecutors said. No one else has been charged in the case, but Hammonds faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced May 29.