Chicago financial adviser pleads guilty to $4.2M fraud

A former financial adviser based in Chicago pleaded guilty Thursday to defrauding her clients out of more than $4.2 million by persuading them to buy phony securities.

Delores J. Mosier, 72, admitted in a plea agreement to one count of mail fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office. Mosier faces up to 20 years in prison or a fine up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the fraud.

While Mosier operated Chicago-based investment firm D.J. Mosier and Associates Inc., she advised her clients to invest in debt securities called “Chicago Anticipatory Notes,” saying that they were issued by the city and would earn annual 7 percent interest or higher, prosecutors said. The securities did not exist.

Her clients made out checks to “Chicago Anticipatory Note,” which Mosier then cashed into a bank account in her name called “CAN,” defrauding nine people out of more than $4.2 million, prosecutors said.

She used the money for “household expenses” and to make mortgage payments on a property in La Porte, Indiana, prosecutors said. She also used some of the money to make bogus interest payments to clients who had purchased the fake securities, further concealing the scheme by providing fake documents and statements.

Mosier, of La Porte, Indiana, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 12.