(HedgeCo.Net) Kimberly Kitts, a Cape Cod-area investment adviser, pleaded guilty to criminal charges filed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Kitts admitted to investment adviser fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with stealing over $3 million from her clients’ investment and retirement accounts.

Kitts is currently a defendant in a pending SEC enforcement action filed on July 19, 2018. According to the SEC’s Complaint, Kitts forged her clients’ signatures on withdrawal requests to misappropriate money from their variable annuity and investment accounts. Over the course of six years, Kitts made 82 unauthorized withdrawals from these accounts, using falsified account statements to conceal her theft. Kitts proceeded to use the stolen $3 million of client funds for personal use.

The criminal charges, filed on September 18, 2018, arose from the same conduct alleged in the SEC’s Complaint. Kitts is scheduled to be sentenced on March 20, 2019.