Connecticut RIA gets five years for scam

A federal judge in Connecticut has sentenced adviser Aaron Johnson to five years in prison for defrauding 19 clients in his investment business of $620,000, and ordered him to pay full restitution. Mr. Johnson, 37, was arrested on Feb. 17, 2016, and on Feb. 23 of this year pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud. He was president and chief investment officer of J. Capital Advisors, a registered investment adviser in Haddam, Conn., until Oct. 21, 2013, when the state revoked his registration and that of his firm, according to the Middletown Press. Court documents cited in the report said that Mr. Johnson submitted falsified documentation to his firm's custodian, Trade PMR, including bogus account statements for clients and letters of authorization that he forged, purporting to allow him to take fees from client accounts. Afterward, he began skimming excessive and unearned fees from client accounts The activity took place from April 2010 to December 2012, when Trade PMR terminated its relationship with Mr. Johnson's firm.