Investment Adviser Charged With Faking Client Accounts, Making Off With $1 Billion

A money manager created fake client accounts and other bogus documents purporting to show her firm was overseeing millions of dollars held in Swiss bank accounts in order to lure legitimate investors to the scheme, federal authorities allege.

Leila Jenkins, the owner of Locke Capital Management with offices in Rhode Island and New York, fabricated client account statements, marketing brochures, and other false credentials since at least 2003, according the Securities and Exchange Commission. The false documents claimed that Jenkins and her firm managed more than $1 billion in assets, but in reality, she oversaw just a small fraction of that amount for legitimate clients, authorities say.

Some of the account statements Jenkins showed to prospective investors reportedly were created by her on a laptop computer. The SEC has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Rhode Island seeking financial penalties against Jenkins and her firm.

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