A New Jersey advisor allegedly bilked elderly clients in a $1 million Ponzi-like scheme to fund Atlantic City gambling junkets, among other personal expenses.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Scott Newsholme, a tax preparer and investment advisor based in Farmingdale, N.J., of taking his clients’ money through fraud and deception. The agency filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, on Wednesday.

The SEC alleges that, since at least 2013, Newsholme fabricated account statements, doctored stock certificates and forged promissory notes as part of a scheme to persuade financial planning clients to invest their assets using his services.

Newsholme allegedly met his clients as a tax preparer recommending tax-advantaged annuities; many of these clients were retirees, civil servants or otherwise vulnerable people. Eventually, he began to recommend they branch out and invest in other assets through additional vehicles.

According to the complaint, rather than investing the client money, Newsholme cashed the investment checks at a check-cashing store and pocketed the funds, all the while assuring his clients that their assets were safe. The SEC alleges Newsholme verbally lied to his clients and presented them with forged and phony documentation to keep his clients’ minds at ease.

Newsholme then allegedly used the client money for gambling in Atlantic City, personal expenses and Ponzi-like payments to clients who sought a return of their funds.

He is charged with violations of the Securities Act, the Investment Advisers Act and the Securities Exchange Act. The SEC is seeking civil penalties and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest, and wants to prohibit him from continuing the alleged scheme.