Acton Investment Advisor Sentenced For Stealing Over $3.7M: Feds

ACTON, MA — An Acton man was sentenced on Tuesday in connection with a long-running scheme to steal money from clients of his investment advisor business. According to the Department of Justice, Gerald Allan Eaton, 51, stole more than $3.8 million from more than 20 clients.

Eaton was sentenced to 102 months in prison and three years of supervised release. He also has to pay $3,824,930 in restitution and an additional $1,698,701 in pre-judgment interest. Eaton pleaded guilty in September 2020 to wire fraud, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Eaton was a certified financial planner with a business called Heritage Financial Group in Acton. From at least 1999 through October 2019, Eaton stole millions of dollars from clients’ accounts, according to the Department of Justice.

Eaton would forge clients signatures, have them sign false documents, or falsely represent transactions to the brokerage and insurance firms he was affiliated with, in order to keep the scheme going, according to the Department of Justice.

In September 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission entered an order barring Eaton from the securities industry based on the same conduct.