A Cheshire, Conn.–based financial advisor previously affiliated with LPL will serve more than two years in prison after stealing more than $600,000 from a 73-year-old investor over the course of several years.
Matthew O. Clason previously pleaded guilty to the charges of wire fraud in Connecticut federal court in May. In total, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison with an additional two years of supervised release, though he originally faced as much as 20 years in prison based on the charges.
Clason began his financial services career in 2004, where he worked at American General Securities for three years, before joining Lincoln Financial Advisors until 2016, when he joined LPL, according to his BrokerCheck profile. He also worked with Integrated Wealth Concepts registered as an IAR, according to his IAPD profile (though his profiles indicated both LPL and Integrated Wealth fired him in August 2020).
Additionally, in September 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Clason for perpetrating the scheme, which began in 2015. According to the Justice Department, that year, Clason started offering investment services to the unnamed victim, who opened at least five investment accounts with Clason and eventually opened a joint bank account with him in January 2018.
Though the client believed the funds in the joint account would be used for her benefit, beginning at some point in 2018 and for the next two years, Clason would make more than 60 transfers from the client’s accounts into the joint account, totaling more than $668,000. Throughout this period, Clason continued with a personal friendship with the unnamed client, often driving her to appointments, running errands and visiting her multiple times a week, according to the SEC.
But over this time, Clason frequently withdrew cash from the joint account for his own use without the elderly woman's knowledge. All in all, he withdrew about $621,000 from the joint account until August 2020, according to the DOJ. At one point, Clason transferred $5,000 out of the joint account into his own personal bank account, and on two other occasions made transfers from the joint account to pay down his own credit card bills.
In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Michael Shea ordered Clason to pay $639,580 in restitution. He is currently released on bond but must report to prison on Feb. 28, 2022.