Needham Investment Adviser Gets More Jail Time for Fraud Scheme

Jane E. O’Brien, a former investment advisor in Needham, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton on Friday to 45 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay more than $825,000 in restitution to her victims, United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz says.

O’Brien was previously convicted of defrauding a single client out of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. In May of 2013, she was sentenced to 33 months in prison for her actions.

In imposing the sentence, the court ruled O’Brien had attempted to obstruct the government’s investigation of her additional crimes following her prior conviction for securities fraud in December 2012.

In April 2015, O’Brien, a former Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney investment adviser, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and investment adviser fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud several clients for whom she provided investment advisory services from 1995 to 2013.

As part of the scheme, prosecutors say O’Brien misappropriated funds entrusted to her through a variety of means, including persuading clients to withdraw money from their bank and brokerage accounts and give the money to her personally to invest on their behalf.

Prosecutors say O’Brien never invested her clients’ money, but instead she used the funds for a variety of improper purposes for her own benefit.

She will serve both prison sentences in a consecutive fashion.