The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing an Austin, Texas, woman for allegedly creating fake stock trading websites and bilking clients out of close to $1.5 million, according to a suit filed this morning.

According to the filing, Leena Jaitley—also known as Ali Jaitley and Leena Patel—created and operated two websites that claimed to profitably trade stock options on behalf of clients. Instead, the websites, OptionsbyPros and Managed Option Trading, lost approximately $1.48 million for its clients between 2018 and the present, the filing said. In an email to Financial Advisor, Jaitley disputed the $1.48 million figure, claiming she didn't net that amount.

The alleged execution of the fraud relied on Jaitley’s ability to persuade clients to provide the two websites with access to the clients’ online securities brokerage accounts and to authorize the site’s traders to trade stock options on the clients’ behalf. The filing stated that Jaitley did this by falsely claiming that the websites used a unique and proprietary trading system designed to generate profits before other traders could trade. The sites also claimed to have a long track record of successful investing and expected specified minimum profits, such as a $20,000 minimum weekly profit on a $100,000 account, or a $50,000 profit on a $200,000 account. Jaitley also said that the sites employed scores of traders with experience at large and reputable broker-dealers, and that those traders worked out of the MetLife building in New York so they could be “close to the exchange,” the SEC says. And the agency added that Jaitley falsified testimonials and marketing materials to support this story.

In reality, the “traders” were Jaitley and, possibly, Jaitley’s now-deceased father who, “at the time of the scheme, was 84 years old, in poor health and may have been suffering from dementia,” the filing said.

The scheme resulted in at least 15 clients losing investment principal of about $808,000, the filing stated, adding that those clients also paid about $525,000 in “start-up” and other fees. One client paid an additional $150,000 after being convinced that was the way to recover previous losses.

The SEC also says that Jaitley used her mother, Taraben Patel, who formerly worked as a clerk with the Internal Revenue Service, to receive gift cards and various luxury goods that Jaitley persuaded clients to send her. (The suit also named Taraben Patel and OTA LLC, a Jaitley company, as relief defendants.)

When some clients changed the passwords on their brokerage accounts to prevent further losses, Jaitley accused them of violating their agreement and threatened legal action, according to the filing.

The filing said that Jaitley has been convicted of various felonies in the past, including “counterfeiting/forgery of financial instrument, theft, tampering with government records/fraud and online ‘impersonation-name/persona,’” and that she had been arrested for stalking, harassment and DUI/DWI.

The SEC lawsuit seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, accrued prejudgment interest and civil monetary penalties.

At press time, both websites had been taken down.