Former money manager settles charges of defrauding du Pont heir

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, July, 2006 | by Benjamin Y. Lowe

A former Kennett Square money manager who was adviser to the Henlopen Fund has settled a civil Securities and Exchange Commission complaint that he defrauded a du Pont heir of nearly $13 million.

The SEC said today that Michael L. Hershey, who was accused of using J. Eric May's $30 million trust to fund an Aston start-up company that sold specialty computers, neither admitted nor denied the charges, and has paid a $250,000 settlement to May's estate.

May, formerly of Wilmington, died in November 2004, five months after the SEC's Philadelphia office first took action against Hershey and his firm, Landis Associates L.L.C.

"Besides fraudulently removing tens of millions from his trust, he stole our last years of peace together," said William A. Prost, May's...