Former North Hills Investment Planner Sentenced to Prison for Using Clients' Funds to Pay Personal Expenses

PITTSBURGH – An Allegheny County resident has been sentenced in federal court to two years in prison and two years supervised release on his conviction of mail fraud, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

United States District Judge David Stewart Cercone imposed the sentence on Cameron Howat, 58, of Allison Park, Pennsylvania.

According to the information presented to the court, Howat solicited investment funds from friends and acquaintances for the purpose of investing those funds in the foreign exchange market. Howat represented to the investors that his compensation for making the investments on their behalf would be to take fifty percent of the profits from the investments. Instead of investing all of the funds, as promised to the investors, Howat took portions of each investor’s money and used it to pay for personal expenses. As part of his sentence, Howat was ordered to pay $420,000 to his victims.

Assistant United States Attorney Shaun E. Sweeney prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

The United States Attorney commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation that led to the successful prosecution of Cameron Howat.