FORMER UPPER ARLINGTON FINANCIAL ADVISOR PLEADS GUILTY TO DEFRAUDING INVESTORS

COLUMBUS – Jason W. Cox, 39, now of Dublin, Ohio pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering, two counts of mail fraud, and one count of wire fraud relative to a scheme to defraud his clients, one of which was an impaired adult, of the funds they had invested through him as their financial advisor.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation announced the plea entered into today before U.S. District Chief Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.

According to court documents, the defendant used his position as a financial advisor with a national financial services company at their Upper Arlington office to defraud an impaired adult and other victims.

The impaired adult had been introduced to Cox by her father and was told by her father that Cox would be her financial advisor and that he was a person she could trust to manage her money after her father was no longer around to do so. After the victim’s father died, Cox devised and carried out schemes to defraud the impaired adult, resulting in the loss of her residence and approximately $ 400,000 in assets over the course of 18 months.

Cox would cause the sale of a fund in the victim’s accounts and then wire the funds to her bank or mail a check to her that would be deposited into her account. He would then convince the victim to give him cash or a check in an amount equal to or slightly less than the amount transferred. These amounts were frequent and were generally in thousands of dollars.

“She believed that she and Cox were business partners even though she was unclear what that business was,” Assistant United States Attorney Deborah A. Solove said. “Since she has little concept of the value of money or the relative amounts changing hands, she thought that the money she agave him and the money he gave her was somehow a normal thing to do.”

Cox convinced a second victim to invest some of the money the victim transferred from his 401k after being laid off. Cox asked the victim to invest $60,000 with a guaranteed 10 percent rate of return. The victim agreed to invest $10,000 after Cox sent him the agreement in writing in his employer’s business envelope. Although the victim received his principal and the interest eventually, Cox was fired when this came to light.

The defendant defrauded a third client, an elderly woman, whose adult daughters were handling her financial affairs, whom he paid back with the impaired adult’s money.

Cox was arrested on December 11, 2014 and indicted on January 8, 2015.

“Jason Cox took advantage of an impaired individual for his own financial gain, which is reprehensible,” said Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office. “When you knowingly mix deceit and trickery into the financial well-being of individuals, you create a recipe for devastation that could last a lifetime.”

Money laundering carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Mail fraud and wire fraud are crimes punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the investigation of this case by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah A. Solove, who is prosecuting the case.