Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) announced that a former Morris County investment advisor was sentenced to seven years in prison today for fabricating and mailing more than 100 financial account statements that inflated 14 of her clients’ accounts by a combined $818,000.
Janet Fooshee, 64, who now lives in Lambertville, was sentenced before Somerset County Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman. In December, Fooshee, also known as Janet Gurley and Janet Katz, pleaded guilty to defrauding more than two dozen retirees and others over a 10-year period beginning in 2003.
In addition to fabricating account statements, she admitted stealing approximately $151,000 from four clients, receiving more than $191,539 in unlawful investment advisor fees, defrauding another client out of almost $81,000, and stealing the identities of at least eight corporations.
Her husband Richard Fooshee, 66, an attorney who also resides in Lambertville, was admitted into the Pre-Trial Intervention Program today. He had previously pleaded guilty to second-degree charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and acting as an unlicensed investment advisor, for his part in the scheme.
Fooshee was an investment adviser who worked at Wachovia Securities, Inc. before forming Janet Gurley Katz LLC in 2003. Fooshee admitted that she abused her role as a trusted fiduciary to several of her clients and to a retirement community for which she served as a bookkeeper on a pro bono basis.
Specifically, Fooshee admitted stealing $151,000 from certain clients’ brokerage accounts and from the retirement community’s bank account and depositing that money into other clients’ brokerage accounts.
She admitted to stealing this money in part to conceal financial losses that she incurred while managing various client accounts. She also admitted that she concealed the fraud by fabricating more than 100 account statements on the letterhead of various financial institutions and mailing these statements to 14 of her clients between 2003 and 2012.
Each of these false account statements contained the logo of Fidelity Investments, Dreyfus, Alliance Bernstein, Wells Fargo, Transamerica Life Insurance Company, ING, AIG Life Insurance Company, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch or JMB Realty Corporation.
Janet Fooshee admitted that she created and mailed these false statements without the knowledge or authorization of any of these companies. These fraudulent statements inflated the value of her clients’ investments (including purported investments in annuities and securities) by a combined total of approximately $818,000, and resulted in at least $17,000 in additional improper fees.
In March 2009, the New Jersey Bureau of Securities issued orders revoking Fooshee’s status as a registered investment adviser and her ability to qualify for exemptions from the registration requirement. As a result, Fooshee was barred from acting as an investment adviser in the state of New Jersey or to New Jersey residents.
Fooshee admitted that after her registration was revoked, she conspired with her husband to continue to act as an investment adviser to several of her pre-existing New Jersey clients through early 2013. During that time, she admitted that she and her husband earned $191,539 in unlawful adviser fees. This amount is separate from the approximately $17,000 in improper fees described above.
Fooshee’s husband, Richard Fooshee, admitted that he conspired with his wife to help her continue to act as an investment adviser by depositing advisory fee checks from her clients into his personal bank accounts and transferring the money to Janet Fooshee or to a joint account owned by both of them.
These clients were unaware that Janet Fooshee’s registration had been revoked. Richard Fooshee also admitted that he acted in an investment advisory capacity with respect to Janet Fooshee’s New Jersey clients, and that he did so without registering as an investment adviser and without qualifying for an exemption from the registration requirement.
Janet Fooshee pleaded guilty to 31 of the 37 charges contained in two indictments brought against her in 2012 and 2013. In particular, she pleaded guilty to the following crimes:
§ Second-Degree Identity Theft
§ Second-Degree Conspiracy
§ Second Degree Securities Fraud
§ Second-Degree Theft by Unlawful Taking
§ Second-Degree Misapplication of Entrusted Property
§ Second-Degree Identity Theft
§ Third-Degree Identity Theft
§ Fourth-Degree Forgery
§ Fourth-Degree Falsifying or Tampering with Records
In exchange for Fooshee’s guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss Second-Degree Money Laundering charges, Second- and Third-Degree Theft by Deception, and Second-and Third-Degree Theft by Unlawful Taking. Fooshee also agreed to pay more than $415,000 in restitution.
Deputy Attorneys General Michael Locke and TJ Harker represented the OIFP at the sentencing hearing. Deputy Attorney General Harker and former Deputy Attorney General Brad Muller, Sgt. Jarek Pyrzanowski, Detectives Wendy Berg, Matt Armstrong, Jonathan Berman and Justin Callahan, Analyst Kelly Celenza and former Detective Doug Mattei coordinated the investigation.
People who are concerned about insurance cheating and have information about a fraud can report it anonymously by calling the toll-free hotline at 1-877-55-FRAUD, or visiting the Web site at www.NJInsurancefraud.org. State regulations permit a reward to be paid to an eligible person who provides information that leads to an arrest, prosecution and conviction for insurance fraud.