2 Advisors Sentenced In $2.7M Fraud

June 20--Two Manalapan investment advisers were sentenced to federal prison for bilking $2.7 million from clients and for lying to the Internal Revenue Service.

Shawn O'Sullivan, 60, who has lived in Palm Beach and in the Lake Worth area, on Tuesday was sentenced to 16 months in prison by U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas for his role in the scam. In May, 49-year-old Finnish native Heidi Wivolin, his partner in the Firstrust and Finntrust Investments, was handed a two-year term.

Both were ordered to pay $2.7 million in restitution to unidentified clients who gave them money to invest. Instead, O'Sullivan and Wivolin used the money to bankroll comfortable lifestyles and the business, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Aurora Fagan.

The former business partners were also ordered to pay the IRS. Sullivan owes the government $122,000 while Wivolin faces a $140,000 tax bill.

Both pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud and tax evasion. Wivolin, who emigrated to the United States in 1972 and is a U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to an additional charge of willfully filing a false tax return.

Their scheme began unraveling in 2014 when O'Sullivan threatened to kill himself at the investment office on South Ocean Boulevard. Wivolin told Manalapan police that O'Sullivan said he lost $11 million and believed suicide was the only option, records show.

O'Sullivan was involuntarily committed to a mental health hospital under the state's Baker Act. Later, both began cooperating with federal agents. They were charged in January.

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