FBI: Vienna Investment Adviser Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

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A former investment advisor from Vienna, employed by the Naval Research Lab Federal Credit Union, Raymond James Financial Services, and Apple Federal Credit Union, was sentenced Friday to 126 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay more than $2.97 million in restitution.

Ismail Elmas, 49, of Vienna, defrauded his own investment advisory clients—many of whom were elderly and had placed their complete financial trust in him—of more than $3 million, according to a the FBI said in a news release. Elmas pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on Oct. 21, 2014.

According to court documents, Elmas worked as an investment advisor from early 2008 through approximately mid-2014. Elmas would misappropriate client funds given to him for legitimate investments and use those funds for his own purposes by way of an account at Navy Federal Credit Union in the name of “I.E. Financial Solutions,” according to the FBI news release.

Elmas misappropriated these client funds in several different ways, the FBI said. For instance, Elmas always materially withheld the fact that I.E. Financial Solutions was his own enterprise—not a separate, independent investment vehicle. For some clients, Elmas falsely described I.E. Financial Solutions as a particular type of investment (e.g., a Certificate of Deposit or a Real Estate Investment Trust), when in reality it was simply the name associated with a bank account that he operated, according to the FBI.

Still for other clients, Elmas illegally transferred the funds to his I.E. Financial Solutions account without providing truthful disclosures about the use and disposition of the funds, the FBI said. All told, Elmas stole millions of dollars from 20 clients, many of whom were wholly dependent on these investments for their retirement or monthly income, the FBI noted.

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Andrew G. McCabe, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga. This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Golder is prosecuting the case.

PHOTO: Ismail Elmas (photo provided by Fairfax County Police/missing person report July 2014)