A securities broker faces criminal charges that he helped an investment fund manager steal $28 million from investors.

Stephen J. Glantz, 54, of Chagrin Falls, was indicted Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland on charges accusing him of securities fraud and making false statements to investigators.

Federal prosecutors say Glantz helped David Dadante, the founder and manager of the IPOF Fund, in a scheme that put $50 million in the hands of Dadante, who passed himself off as a financial wizard.

Glantz could not be reached Tuesday to comment on the charges.

Dadante used millions to pay for gambling trips, a Gates Mills house and other luxuries. Dadante, 53, pleaded guilty last month to securities fraud. A federal judge will sentence him in November.

The scheme involved manipulating the stock price of Innotrac, a small Georgia-based company. Glantz handled Dadante's accounts and used a variety of prohibited techniques to inflate the stock's value, according to the indictment.

Dadante, with Glantz's help, secretly amassed most of Innotrac's stock, the indictment said. Dadante in turn employed a Ponzi scheme to defraud his investors and kept them in the dark by supplying them with fake account documents. Agents arrested Dadante in March.

FBI agents and other federal investigators twice interviewed Glantz in 2006. He denied doing anything illegal, according to the indictment.