Cliff Popper commits suicide - UPI.com HIGHLAND BEACH, Fla., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Cliff Popper, an investment broker charged with civil fraud for misrepresenting mortgage-backed investments, committed suicide in his Florida home. Popper was found in his Highland Beach condo Tuesday, before a judge could rule in his fraud case, The Miami Herald reported. I knew he wasn't well. I talked to him about a month ago. But I had no idea he was going to [commit suicide]," said Miami attorney Jeffrey Kaplan, who once represented Popper. Lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Popper was the architect of a scheme that misled people into putting their life savings into investments in the housing market, which collapsed. "It was a horror show," said Scott Silver, a Coral Springs lawyer who represents 30 families in Broward and Miami-Dade County. People lost homes, retirements, life savings. These were mom-and-pop investors. Popper and his team at Brookstreet Investors brought in commissions totaling $16.2 million in just three years, SEC records state. Since charges were brought against Popper in 2009, the broker, who represented himself at trial, maintained he was made a scapegoat for the loan crisis by bigger, ambiguous regulators who failed at their jobs, creating a volatile market, The Miami Herald said. In his final argument to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra in November, Popper argued he shouldn't have been charged at all. He said he "never made any intentional misrepresentations to anyone," and his business was hit by the market collapse as well. It is unclear when Marra will rule in the case.