| An Orleans investment adviser pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Boston to defrauding her clients of more than $3 million and using those funds for her own expenses.
Kimberly Kitts, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of investment adviser fraud, four counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Beginning in 2011, Kitts engaged in various schemes to misappropriate her clients’ assets in order to pay her personal expenses, according to federal prosecutors. In one scheme, she directed client assets to a bank account for Marquis Consulting, an entity she controlled. In another scheme, Kitts used her position as an investment adviser to divert her clients’ funds to her own account and then took the funds for her own personal use. This included cashing her clients’ annuities, transferring funds out of her clients’ brokerage accounts and directing distributions from her clients’ Individual Retirement Accounts. In total, Kitts misappropriated approximately $3 million from her clients.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 20, 2019.
