Federal authorities have filed additional fraud charges against a Massachusetts financial advisor who has already amassed numerous civil complaints for fraud and has pleaded guilty to rape and kidnapping.
Stephen F. Clifford, 58, who did business as Clifford Financial Associates in Plymouth, Mass., was charged Wednesday in federal court in Boston with willful violation of the Investment Advisers Act, mail fraud, wire fraud, and filing a false income tax return. The newest charges were filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the F.B.I, the I.R.S. and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The new charges say Clifford collected $4.3 million from about 20 investors between March 2003 and June 2008. Instead of investing the money, he paid personal expenses--including alimony, mortgages and his daughter's college tuition--and also used the money for a personal fund to speculate in oil futures. He also is charged with failing to report to the I.R.S. $2.1 million in investor funds which he converted to his own use.
But these are only the latest charges filed against Clifford. In June 2008, the Boston Regional Office of the SEC filed a civil complaint claiming Clifford defrauded investors of at least $2.9 million, often using the false claim that he was a registered investment advisor. The SEC obtained a federal court order freezing Clifford's assets. That case is still pending in U.S. District Court in Boston.
In a state civil complaint filed about that same time, William Galvin, the secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, accused Clifford of defrauding investors.
The financial charges began to pile up shortly after Clifford was arrested in early June 2008 on the gambling floor at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut on kidnapping and rape charges. He pleaded guilty two months ago to those charges in Barnstable, Mass., Superior Court and was sentenced to nine to 12 years in state prison.
Clifford admitted binding a woman with duck tape and sexually assaulting her in Bourne, Mass. Massachusetts police soon identified him as a suspect and notified Connecticut police he might be on his way to Foxwoods casino. An off-duty Connecticut State Police officer spotted his car in the parking lot and Clifford was arrested. He had a .357 magnum revolver in the car.