Financial adviser admits to fraud

WORCESTER — A Sutton financial adviser authorities said duped clients of $2.8 million and then continued to deceive one of them after being charged pleaded guilty Thursday to the resulting charges in federal court.

James K. Couture, 42, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston to four counts of wire fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of investment adviser fraud and one count of witness tampering, court records show.

U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for Jan. 11 next year.

A plea agreement entered in court records indicates prosecutors and Couture have agreed to a sentence of 100 months — more than eight years — in prison, as well as restitution "of at least" $1.9 million.

Couture has been facing charges that he stole money from clients since summer 2021.

He was initially set free, but has been jailed for the past eight months after authorities said he tampered with a witness while on release.

Prosecutors have alleged in court documents that Couture, while working for a national financial services company, convinced some of his clients to transfer assets to a separate company he created called Legacy Financial LLC.

Couture did not tell those clients that Legacy was a shell company he created that offered no investment products, authorities said.

He proceeded to steal $2.8 million in client funds and, from 2009 to 2020, created fictitious documents to convince clients they were making money, authorities alleged.

Stolen money used for payouts

When clients asked for payouts from the accounts, authorities have said, Couture got them the money by using money he stole from others and disguising the source.

In one case, authorities allege, Couture liquidated one victim's variable annuities valued at more than $900,000 to pay another client, while in another, he sold two mutual funds in a victim's retirement account to come up with cash.

Couture initially signed an agreement to plead guilty to three counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, but reneged on the deal, prosecutors have said.

He then, according to a superseding indictment secured Jan. 20 of this year, allegedly tried to convince one of his victims that he never stole their money and was continuing to invest it.

The victim, who court records indicate was a Worcester lawyer bilked out of $385,000 in retirement funds, told authorities Couture had shown him documents indicating Couture had paid him back with interest and was managing a new investment account in his name worth $3.5 million.

Couture met with the victim in November 2021 and gave him a document purporting to show the investment balance.

However, Couture was again lying, authorities said, and, when confronted by the victim a month later, acknowledged in a text message that the money "doesn't exist and never has."

Authorities alleged in court documents that Couture was aware that the victim was a witness against him, and attempted to con him again in order to influence his testimony.

Records show Couture worked for LPL Financial LLC — a $6 billion national brokerage firm with offices throughout Massachusetts — from 2009 to 2020.

LPL told the Telegram & Gazette in 2021 that it had "discharged" Couture in 2020 and was cooperating with federal authorities.

In addition to sentencing next year, Couture is facing a civil lawsuit in connection with the initial allegations from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That proceeding has been put on hold pending the outcome of Couture's criminal case, court records show.

Contact Brad Petrishen at [email protected].