James K. Couture, investment advisor who pleaded guilty to stealing $2.8M from his clients, to be sentenced

MassLive.com

A 42-year-old Worcester-based investment advisor who pleaded guilty to defrauding and stealing more than $2.8 million from his clients is expected to be sentenced Wednesday in Boston Federal Court.

On Sept. 8, 2022, James Kenneth Couture, 42, of Sutton, pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of investment adviser fraud and one count of witness tampering, United States Attorney Rachael Rollins’s Office said.

From around 2009 to 2020, Couture misappropriated roughly $2.8 million from his clients by transferring funds out of their accounts, investing it in fictitious mutual funds and then selling other clients’ holdings to pay investment returns.

In June 2016, Couture liquidated one client’s variable annuities to fund withdrawals by another client. Later in December 2019 and January 2020, Couture paid a client he had previously defrauded by selling other clients’ mutual funds.

As part of his 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 client’s benefit, officials said.

“Couture also stole from clients using their own profit-sharing plans and conducting transactions in their names to disguise his fraudulent transactions,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Couture was initially charged in connection with this scheme in June 2021.

After those initial charges were filed, Couture engaged in witness tampering by creating fake documents purported to be for a client’s accounts and was charged with witness tampering in connection with his efforts to deceive this victim on Jan. 14.

Federal records show Couture agreed to plead guilty in August 2022 with an agreed-upon sentence of 100 months in prison along with 3 years of supervised release. As part of the plea agreement, Couture will pay $1.9 million in restitution.