A former suburban Chicago financial advisor has been sentenced to 4½ years in prison for scamming about 15 elderly clients out of more than $3 million and using the money to feed her gambling habits and to make Ponzi payments, according to the sentencing document obtained from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Illinois.
During the sentencing, which was conducted via videoconference last week, Lucita Zamoras, 58, of Niles, Ill., also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah to pay restitution of $3.14 million, the amount stolen.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in April 2017 had filed a complaint alleging that Zamoras solicited investors for a promissory note program and subsequently misappropriated their funds, beginning in 2009. The SEC said the scheme encouraged investors to transfer their 401(k)s, which had been invested in stable, interest-bearing annuities, to self-directed IRA accounts and purchase promissory notes issued by her. She promised 3.5% to 5% annual interest on the notes. But Zamoras never invested her clients’ funds, the SEC alleged.
In October 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago filed a parallel criminal case against Zamoras, charging her with one count of mail fraud for swindling the elderly clients out of their retirement…
