A former Ameriprise financial advisor will spend more than 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to concocting a real estate investment fraud on elderly clients who collectively lost more than $12 million, much of it from their retirement accounts.
Earlier this year, Paul Ricky Mata pleaded guilty to 17 felonies, including multiple counts of mail and wire fraud. He had been affiliated with Ameriprise for more than 20 years until 2009, according to his FINRA BrokerCheck profile. He was terminated from Ameriprise for soliciting clients to purchase securities the firm didn’t hold or offer, and for recommending that clients take out risky loans, according to the DOJ’s original indictment against him from 2019.
Subsequently, Mata founded Logos Wealth Advisors, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm, and solicited Ameriprise clients to follow him. According to the DOJ, between Aug. 2008 and Sept. 2015, Mata solicited clients to invest in several of his businesses while failing to tell them of disciplinary actions against him taken by Nevada and California, as well as a one-year FINRA suspension and a three-year suspension by the CFP Board for misconduct.
Mata urged clients to invest in Secured Capital, a separate venture he owned that purported to invest in “government-backed tax liens” and commercial and residential properties. Mata told investors that he could guarantee an annual return on their investment between 5% and 10%, even though the investments in the business had “significant loss risks” and did not turn a profit at any point after 2011, according to the DOJ.
Prosecutors said Mata met many of the harmed investors through presentations at churches. To attract investors, Mata also hosted online seminars entitled “Finances God’s Way” and “Indestructible Wealth,” according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, who filed a civil action against Mata in 2015.
“He prayed with them, professed to share values and beliefs with them, and he acted like they were his friends,” DOJ prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “Moreover, many of his victims are currently retired, and/or were in the process of retiring when (Mata) advised them to enter into his risky investments based on false pretenses.”
Instead, Mata used investor funds for Secured Capital for his own expenses, including spending $197,000 for a down payment on his California home, loans for himself and other business ventures, and $370,000 that went directly into his own personal accounts. According to the DOJ, Mata falsely stated he’d never filed for bankruptcy during bankruptcy proceedings in Oct. 2016 (he’d already filed once in 2010), and hid property, including several automobiles, from the government and creditors during those proceedings. A request for comment from an attorney for Mata was not returned as of press time.
After filing its action against Mata in 2015, the SEC eventually won a judgment mandating that Mata pay more than $11.7 million. The California Department of Business Oversight also won an injunction against the former advisor, coupled with a $14 million order for restitution and more than $6 million in penalties.
Mata was remanded to custody after his federal sentencing this month; in addition to the 168-month prison term, Mata was ordered by the court to pay more than $12.5 million in restitution.