Former chief compliance officer at RIA guilty of $500,000 fraud

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York said last week that Jennifer Campbell, who had been office manager and chief compliance officer at an investment advisory firm based in Buffalo, New York, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

From 2018 to 2021, Campbell, 47, used her access to client accounts to steal more than $500,000 from several clients and from the firm itself, primarily by writing checks from client accounts, forging the signatures of either the client or a principal at the firm, and then depositing the checks into her own personal account.

The Justice Department did not include the name of the firm where she worked, but several news websites reported that Campbell had worked at Pratt Collard Buck Advisory Group, which closed at the end of last year. According to the firm's Form ADV, it had $262 million in client assets. Calls to the firm could not be completed.

"Campbell took various steps to conceal her theft," according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney. "In one instance, she sent a victim a falsified account statement that purported to show an account balance of approximately $148,000, when in fact the account at the time had a balance of only $93. In another instance, Campbell took funds from a client and transferred them to the bank account of one of her earlier victims."

"Finally, Campbell gained access to the email accounts of the firm’s principals and diverted emails that they received from anti-money laundering and financial crimes personnel at the firm’s broker-dealer, who had begun to raise questions about some of the transactions that Campbell had engaged in," according to the U.S. Attorney. "In an effort to put off these inquiries, Campbell sent several emails using the email account of a firm principal."