Ex-Commonwealth Rep Pleads Guilty to Stealing Over $3.7M From Clients

Eaton was most recently a certified financial planner, running Heritage, a company with an office in Acton, Massachusetts. In that capacity, Eaton invested his clients’ funds in securities and various insurance products, including life insurance policies and annuities. From at least 1999 through October 2019, Eaton stole millions of dollars from clients’ accounts, Lelling alleged. Eaton did so mainly by selling securities, insurance policies and annuities in clients’ accounts, and causing the proceeds to be sent to accounts he owned or controlled, according to Lelling.

Related: CFP Board Is Now Enforcing New Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct

“As part of his scheme, Eaton forged clients’ signatures on checks and documents, or caused clients to sign documents by falsely representing that the proceeds of transactions would be used for the clients’ benefit,” according to Lelling.

Eaton also falsely represented to the brokerage firm with which he was affiliated, and to insurance companies, that the transactions he requested on his clients’ behalf were for the benefit of his clients, Lelling alleged.

In reality, Lelling said, Eaton caused proceeds to be sent to his own credit card accounts to pay off his personal and family expenses, as well as to his home equity line of credit. To avoid detection, Eaton defrauded clients he knew were unlikely to notice what he had done, either because they were elderly or in poor mental or physical condition, according to the U.S. attorney.

The charges of mail and wire fraud provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain/loss, whichever is greater, according to Lelling. The charge of aggravated identity theft provides for a mandatory sentence of two years in prison to be served consecutive to any other sentence imposed, one year of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 and restitution.

In a parallel action, the SEC entered an order barring Eaton from the securities industry based on the same conduct, effective Sept. 30, according to BrokerCheck.