Ex-LPL broker sentenced to 8 years in prison for fraud

James Couture of Worcester, Massachusetts, had pleaded guilty in September to being involved in a scheme to steal $2.8 million from clients.

James K. Couture, a former financial advisor in Worcester, Massachusetts, last week was sentenced to more than eight years in prison — 100 months — for his involvement in a long-running scheme to steal more than $2.8 million from six clients.

An 11-year veteran of LPL Financial, Couture, 42, pleaded guilty in September to his involvement in the scheme. He pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of investment advisor fraud and one count of witness tampering.

“From approximately 2009 to 2020, Couture misappropriated approximately $2.8 million from his clients by transferring funds out of his clients’ accounts, investing it in fictitious mutual funds and then selling other clients’ holdings to pay investment returns,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s statement from Jan. 11. “In June 2016, Couture liquidated one client’s variable annuities to fund withdrawals by another client. Similarly, in December 2019 and January 2020, Couture paid a client he had previously defrauded by selling other clients’ mutual funds.”

“As part of this scheme, Couture forged clients’ signatures on documents, or caused clients to sign documents by falsely representing that the proceeds of transactions would be used for the clients’ benefit,” the U.S. Attorney stated. “Couture also stole from clients using their own profit-sharing plans and conducting transactions in their names to disguise his fraudulent transactions.”