Former Upper Arlington Financial Advisor Sentenced for Defrauding Investors

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jason W. Cox, 39, now of Dublin, Ohio was sentenced to 60 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $ 412,252 in restitution to the victims, one of which was an impaired adult, of his scheme to defraud them of the funds they had invested through him as their financial advisor.  Cox previously pleaded guilty on July 8, 2015 to two counts of money laundering, two counts of mail fraud, and one count of wire fraud.

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 sentence handed down today by 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 left her with no assets and no income.

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.

"The web of financial lies that Jason Cox created came crashing down like a house of cards and he is now a convicted felon that must pay back the stolen money," said Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.  "Unfortunately, the victims in this case, including an impaired individual, have been left to pick up the pieces"

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 prosecuted the case.