<prompt> Human: Ill try to sum this up as best as I can, because Im posting on behalf of someone who is a non-Redditor, but wanted to take the situation to you people for some help.For all intents and purposes, I will put myself in the position of my friend, but I realistically am asking for a friend.My father 82 has struggled with money his whole life, especially after he and my mom got divorced. Eventually, a new girlfriend of his convinced him to take 16,000, save it, and invest it with a financial advisor, which at the time, she recommended. I was proud of my dad, because he actually did.Fast forward to May. My brother and I find out my father has about 10k in outstanding credit card debt that is piling on interest. My brother has POA and decided to withdraw his money from his financial advisor to pay off the debt.Financial advisor lets us know that, hes very sorry, but he spent the money and cant pay it back right away. That my father was his Top priority and he needed until the end of June. Also let us know that if we wanted to report him, he understands and gave us the steps to do so. He then said that if he is reported, hell lose his license, but the insurance money wont cover everyones owed funds and that he needs time.So far, he has paid back 2,500roughly and its now September 3rd. My brother has been paying the minimum payments on the credit card to avoid late penalties, but that is as much as we have received.So, Reddit, help me. What should our next step be? Legal action vs. reporting? Is it possible my father agreed to this in a legally binding contract? Should we try to touch base with other clients that were swindled? I truly need your help.EDIT: THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO GET THE MONEY BACK. My father is 82 years old and I dont want his debt to grow any further. I dont want to ruin this mans life, I simply want to not further ruin my fathers.EDIT 2: Am Canadian.TL;DR: father invested 16k with a financial advisor, brother and I find out Dad has 10k in credit card debt, go to withdraw money, Financial Advisor spent it, said if we report him hell lose his license and insurance wont cover everyones owed money, has only paid back 2500.  <response>: Well, there are some circumstances where things might be invested in things that need to mature, or otherwise cant be withdrawn until a specific date for instance, I have CDs that wont mature until next year. If I withdrew them, theyd incur a penalty and Ive told people here in rpersonalfinance not to withdraw a particular thing until a particular date because theyll lose money. You need to look at whatever he signed and whatever statements he has been sent to see what the possibilities are.However, it SOUNDS like a classic case of a financial advisor fraud. Its the Madoff classic. You hand him money, he spends it on himself, sends you letters saying all is well, look how pretty your account is and anyone who asks for money back gets paid with new money. When new money dries up, there is no money to pay people back.If this is in fact the case, then you need to look at what the possibilities are. I dont know if this is the case in Canada, but in the US, if the father was one of the people who managed to get out of the scheme before it all hits the fan and it ALWAYS hits the fan then the feds have been known to claw back those proceeds to throw back into the pot to shell out to all the investors. That leaves the moral question of whether to report him or see how much money you can get first. I would report him. Id go scorched earth on his ass for defrauding the elderly. But Im not down 13,500 dollars and in debt. If hes insured, then father would at least see SOME of that money back. Eventually. Apparently in Canada, one reports these things to the Securities Administrators here you can check and see if hes been banned or otherwise disciplined and the RCMP hereWhat you probably need to do is consult an attorney, who would know whether getting the money back was likely at all and how best to proceed, whether reporting him would be likely to get any money back or whether a civil suit would be best or how you can file against his insurance. tl;dr you need to talk to an attorney. 