NEW YORK, Oct. 01, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On September 30, 2019, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the arrest of Norwalk, Connecticut financial advisor James Booth. James Booth, a 74-year-old financial adviser with nearly thirty years in the securities business, was arrested for stealing from his investment advisory clients. Fitapelli Kurta, a law firm that represents victims of financial and securities fraud, currently represents 39 of these victims, including some who were anonymously referenced in the criminal complaint. To date, Fitapelli Kurta has assisted the government in its investigation and has filed numerous securities arbitrations against the broker-dealers who employed James Booth and provided material assistance to his complex Ponzi scheme.
James Booth orchestrated one of the largest and longest-lasting Ponzi schemes in Connecticut history, allegedly stealing over $13 million from his investment advisory clients for more than two decades. According to securities attorney Jonathan Kurta, “James Booth’s alleged criminal Ponzi scheme was despicable, shocking and immoral. He victimized his most vulnerable clients by stealing from widows, charities, the terminally ill and the elderly. The effect his crimes has had on his victims is heartbreaking. These were trusting people, who would never have imagined that their retirement funds could have been stolen.”
While Mr. Booth’s alleged crime, which often involved stealing directly from his clients’ brokerage accounts, was relatively simple, the cover-up was complex and sophisticated. To conceal his crimes, Mr. Booth manufactured bogus account statements that bore the names of his broker-dealers, Invest Financial Corporation and LPL Financial. He also manipulated LPL Financial’s online system so that his victims could log on to LPL’s real website and view assets that did not actually exist. This is what provided a sense of legitimacy to his scheme. Jonathan Kurta explains: “In one instance, due to these fake account statements, an investor believed he had over $1.8 million in assets but in reality he had only $250,000 to use for the remainder of his life in retirement. Imagine the extreme shock of waking up one day and learning the assets you viewed on your hard copy statements, as well as online through your financial institution’s actual website, were completely bogus. This was the sad reality for many of Mr. Booth’s clients.”
The complaints filed against Invest Financial Corporation and LPL Financial allege that Mr. Booth would have never been able to orchestrate his alleged scheme without the involvement of his broker-dealers, who were active participants in his alleged crime. Specifically, the complaints allege that brokers in Mr. Booth’s branch office either knew or should have known of his alleged activity. In some instances, Booth paid other brokers registered with Invest and LPL from shell companies that Booth used to allegedly steal from victims.
Fitapelli Kurta is currently in the process of filing actions against all parties involved in Booth’s scheme, including the broker-dealers who hired him. Those actions will seek more than $100 million in compensatory damages, interest, attorneys’ fees and punitive damages. If you would like more information about this case, please contact Jonathan Kurta, Esq. at 212-658-1502 or jkurta@fkesq.com.
ATTORNEY ADVERTISING
PRIOR RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE A SIMILAR OUTCOME
THE CHARGES AGAINST JAMES BOOTH ARE ALLEGATIONS AND HE IS PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.
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