New Jersey Woman Pleads Guilty To $1.2M Securities Fraud

An ex-New Jersey Investment Adviser pleaded guilty to 31 of 37 charges in two indictments brought against her in 2012 and 2013 for operating a $1.178 million Securities and Annuities fraud scheme, announced the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor.

Janet Fooshee admitted to falsifying and sending more than a hundred financial account statements that inflated fourteen of her clients’ accounts by a total of $818,000 on Friday before Somerset County Superior Court Judge Edward M. Coleman. She further admitted to thieving about $151,000 from four clients, taking over $191,539 in illegal investment adviser fees, bilking another client out of nearly $81,000, and stealing the identities of at minimum eight corporations. Fooshee, also known as Janet Gurley and Janet Katz, also admitted to bilking over two dozen retirees and others over a decade, starting in 2003.

In return for her guilty plea, the prosecution recommended a seven-year prison sentence and the payment of $415,000 in restitution.

Her husband, Richard Fooshee, an attorney, pleaded guilty to second-degree charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and securities fraud for his part in the scheme. He has applied to the Pre-Trial Intervention program and is expected to be accepted.

Janet Fooshee was an investment adviser at Wachovia Securities, Inc. before forming Janet Gurley Katz LLC in 2003.

Fooshee admitted that during the course of her crimes she fraudulently used the logos of Fidelity Investments, Dreyfus, Alliance Bernstein, Wells Fargo, Transamerica Life Insurance Company, ING, AIG Life Insurance Company, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and JMB Realty Corporation.

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Fooshee admitted that after her registration was revoked, she conspired with her husband to continue to act as an investment adviser to several of her pre-existing New Jersey clients through early 2013.

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 second-degree identity theft, second-degree conspiracy, second-degree securities fraud, second-degree theft by unlawful taking, second-degree misapplication of entrusted property, third-degree identity theft, fourth-degree forgery and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with Records.

If you or someone you know has lost money as a result of an investment or Ponzi scheme, please contact Richard Frankowski at 888-741-7503 to discuss your potential legal remedies or complete the contact form.