A former financial advisor from Florida has been charged with wire fraud by federal prosecutors. The accusation is that he scammed clients from at least four states out of over $2.7 million. He gained access to these clients by acquiring books of businesses from other advisors under false pretenses.
An indictment filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida alleges that Jared Dean Eakes, from January 2019 to February 2020, pretended to be a registered investment advisor, managing millions of dollars in client funds, and attempted to acquire other advisors’ business through an online marketplace.
On May 20th, Eakes was arrested in Jacksonville by an FBI special agent and was subsequently detained until trial. He pleaded not guilty to all four fraud counts last week.
About two years after the Securities and Exchange Commission initiated civil charges against Eakes for his alleged involvement in a fraud scheme, criminal charges have been filed against him. According to a report by the Florida Times-Union, the SEC stated in court that Eakes, who is now 32 years old, has been concealing his whereabouts for almost a year.
According to the indictment, Eakes allegedly took control of client assets from two advisors and converted their funds to accounts under his control. The victims, which included 17 individuals identified only by their initials, resided in various locations such as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri.
According to prosecutors, Eakes deceived his clients by making them believe that their funds were invested in accordance with their preferences. However, as per allegations, he actually misappropriated their money for his own purposes.
According to prosecutors, he engaged in several unlawful activities, including embezzling and transferring client money to his personal brokerage account, conducting unauthorized options trading, and utilizing victim funds to pay his previous investment advisors and cover his personal expenses. Additionally, he allegedly transferred funds to a Las Vegas casino company.
According to the indictment, Eakes allegedly established multiple corporate entities that claimed to be involved in investment management or consulting activities. These entities included various versions of the name GraySail.
The alleged scheme has prompted the government to demand over $2.7 million in forfeited property, signifying the amount of proceeds acquired by the individual involved.
According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck database, Eakes served as a broker at Merrill Lynch for approximately a year from late 2016 to early 2018. Prior to this, Eakes was a registered investment advisor and broker.
Merrill employee’s disciplinary actions seem unrelated to his employment with the company. Bank of America, the parent company of Merrill, did not provide any comment regarding this matter when approached on Thursday.
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