April 2, 2019/US SEC

On March 20, 2019, Kimberly Kitts, a Cape Cod-area investment adviser, whom the Securities and Exchange Commission has charged with fraud, was sentenced in a parallel criminal action to 87 months in prison and ordered to pay $3,085,939 in restitution. On November 19, 2018, Kitts pled guilty to charges filed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts of wire fraud, investment adviser fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

The criminal charges, filed on September 18, 2018, arose from the same conduct alleged in the SEC’s complaint. The SEC alleged that Kitts forged her clients’ signatures on withdrawal requests to misappropriate money from their variable annuity and investment accounts. Through 82 unauthorized withdrawals from these accounts over six years, Kitts stole $3 million of client funds for personal use.

The SEC’s litigation is pending.