An Orleans investment adviser was sentenced earlier this week in federal court in Boston for defrauding her clients of more than $3 million and using those funds for her own expenses.

Kimberly Kitts, 51, was sentenced to 87 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Kitts pleaded guilty to one count of investment adviser fraud, four counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft in November 2018.

Beginning in 2011, Kitts engaged in various schemes to misappropriate her clients’ assets in order to pay her personal expenses. 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 $3.09 million from her clients.