©2016 Bloomberg News
O3QLDB6JIJUY

(Bloomberg) — A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. broker who said he stole millions of dollars from customers because his brain was “hijacked” by an addiction to sports gambling was sentenced to five years in prison.

Michael Oppenheim, who at one point had about 500 clients and almost $90 million under management at JPMorgan, got so deeply in debt that, according to his lawyer, even his bookie expressed sympathy for him.

Oppenheim began placing bets on weekly National Football League games in 1993 and eventually moved to online sports betting, his lawyer said in a letter to the judge. To make up for his losses, he stole from his clients to pay for trades in options of technology stocks like Apple Inc. and ended up losing $2 million on those bets.

He pleaded guilty in November to stealing more than $20 million, having targeted 10 of the wealthiest clients on his list. He covered up the theft by giving the customers faked account statements in what the U.S. called a game of “hide and seek” with their money.

The case is U.S. v. Oppenheim, 15-cr-00548, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net Joe Schneider, Charles Carter