Jeffrey Liskov Charged in Fraud Scheme That Caused More Than $3 Million in Losses

A Plymouth man was charged yesterday in connection with an investment fraud that caused retired clients more than $3 million in losses.

Jeffrey A. Liskov, 42, was charged in an information with investment adviser fraud.

It is alleged that from November 2008 through August 2010, Liskov defrauded retired advisory clients. In 2008, despite sustaining large personal losses in risky, highly volatile foreign currency exchange trading, Liskov is alleged to have begun advising retired clients with conservative investment goals to allow him to engage in such trading with a portion of their retirement money. Liskov received significant performance fees for conducting this volatile trading on behalf of clients based on short-term gains, without regard to the long-term performance of his trading in the clients’ accounts.

In late 2009, after sustaining large trading losses for long-time clients, Liskov started liquidating securities in the brokerage accounts of these clients and investing the proceeds in foreign currency exchange trading without the clients’ knowledge or authorization. In order to fund these investments behind his clients’ backs, Liskov used white-out correction fluid and other methods to create fraudulent documents that allowed him to open new foreign currency exchange trading accounts and/or to transfer funds from client brokerage accounts to foreign currency exchange trading accounts. This allowed Liskov to secretly engage in additional foreign currency exchange trading on behalf of long-time clients for whom he had already lost significant amounts of money—additional trading from which, in some instances, Liskov was able to pocket large performance fees. The trading Liskov engaged in with the funds from this fraud caused over $3 million in losses to the long-time clients but garnered Liskov over $200,000 in performance fees.

The statutory maximum offense for investment adviser fraud is five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and restitution.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today. U.S. Attorney Ortiz expressed appreciation for the significant assistance her office received from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and also acknowledged the cooperation of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan M. DiSantis of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.

The details contained in the information are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.