A former Merrill Lynch advisor whose broker’s license was suspended has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for duping investors—including pastors, church congregants and family members—out of nearly $5 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia.

Phillip Conley, 38, of Jacksonville, Fla., pleaded guilty in June to one count of securities fraud, admitting to swindling millions of dollars from victims in multiple states. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint, his last permanent address was Morgantown, W.Va.

Conley, according to the court document, from 2014 to 2018 falsely claimed to investors that he managed multiple private investment funds through his company ALPAX LLC and affiliated shell companies, and he induced these investors to place their money with one or more of the entities he controlled, even though he knew the investments were bogus. He also told investors that he would not make any securities investments on their behalf and would instead spend their money as if it were his own, the document said.

Conley’s investors included pastors; churches in Charleston, Parkersburg and Morgantown, W.Va.; small businesses; and family and friends. The court said these investors were misled into believing that their money would be invested in ventures such as university student housing construction, high-yield fixed-income securities, oil and gas technologies, mineral rights leasing and timber management. Conley also told investors that he ran a private equity company and had an urgent need for investment funds to “close a big deal,” the court said.

He even provided some investors “with a false sense of security by mailing them dividend statements that misstated the value of the investment accounts.”

In one instance, a married couple gave Conley additional funds to invest with ALPAX after receiving the fabricated quarterly statements showing positive investment returns. The couple had initially invested $185,000 with Conley between April and August 2015, and the purported statement on December 31, 2015, showed that their investments had generated a “YTD percentage yield” of 8.72%. They then invested an additional $62,000 with Conley in early 2016 and made 10 additional investments through January 2018 totaling $250,000, the document said.

Instead of investing the money as promised, Conley comingled the funds in the ALPAX checking accounts that he controlled and used most of the funds to support his lavish lifestyle. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Conley spent almost $1.5 million on travel and leisure, including $518,000 on private jet rentals; spent $566,000 on his personal residence; spent more than $525,000 to compensate various individuals, including personal assistants and a driver; and spent about $287,000 in Ponzi-like payments. Conley also splurged on luxury automobiles, opulent jewelry and designer clothing purchases.

According to BrokerCheck, Conley began his financial services career with Citigroup in 2007; he moved to Wells Fargo in 2010 and started with Merrill Lynch in 2012. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority suspended his license in December 2015 for his failure “to comply with an arbitration award or settlement agreement or to satisfactorily respond to a Finra request to provide information concerning the status of compliance.”

“Securities fraud is a terrible crime and often has a devastating impact,” said U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, in a statement. “Mr. Conley was very persuasive and groomed his victims, convincing them that these were legitimate investment opportunities. Unfortunately, it was a scam in which Conley robbed investors of their life savings.”

In addition to the prison sentence, Conley was ordered to forfeit any property purchased from the proceeds of the crimes and to pay a money judgment of $4,858,817.42.