Pharmacist Charged in Securities Fraud Case
A 55-year-old Thousand Oaks pharmacist has been charged with bilking more than $400,000 from elderly customers who participated in an investment scheme, authorities said Friday.
John Peter Hajducko was charged Thursday with 43 felony counts of elder abuse, grand theft and securities fraud involving 13 victims, authorities said.
Hajducko had been employed as a pharmacist at Sav-On drugstore on Telegraph Road, where he had won the trust of several elderly customers, prosecutors said.
He solicited these customers and others to invest in a pharmaceutical distribution company that Hajducko claimed he was forming, promising high returns, prosecutors said.
But Hajducko allegedly transferred the money to his personal brokerage account and lost most of it on risky trades, prosecutors said.
Hajducko pleaded not guilty to the charges during his arraignment Thursday in Ventura County Superior Court.
He is being held in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
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