(cape cod) -- An Orleans investment adviser has been sentenced to just over 7 years in prison for defrauding her clients of more than $3 million and using those funds for her own expenses.
Kimberly Kitts, 51, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston to 87 months behind bars and three years of supervised release.
Kitts pleaded guilty last November to one count of investment adviser fraud, four counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Beginning in 2011, prosecutors said 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 and directing distributions from her clients’ Individual Retirement Accounts.
In total, Kitts misappropriated approximately $3,085,939 from her clients.
