Wellesley Investment Adviser Conned Clients Out of $1.3M

By Charlene Arsenault (Patch Staff)

An investment adviser from Wellesley who operated a Newton-based company has pleaded guilty to fraud charges that he swindled more than $1.3 million from people thinking he was investing money into public offerings of Facebook and other tech giants.

Paul Jackson allegedly took money from investors, including family and friends, and made his guilty plea of fraud in federal court on Friday, reported the Boston Business Journal.

Jackson was initially charged in June, arrested and charged with pitching fictitious investments to defraud investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to an announcement from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

He owned and operated Paul J. Jackson & Associates, LLC in Newton, according to documents, through which he manages retirement funds for clients.

The Middlesex DA said that beginning in 2010, Jackson started offering clients and others what appeared to be attractive investment opportunities. The investments Jackson offered typically involved initial public offerings (IPOs) of high-profile companies, but Jackson did not invest the clients’ money as promised. Instead, said the release, he took hundreds of thousands of dollars of investor money for his own use.

Jackson, 59, is scheduled for sentencing in February.