Milton Financier Pleads Guilty to Client Fraud, Obstruction of Justice

Arnett Waters, a Milton resident and former CEO of Braintree-based A.L. Waters Capital, LLC, admitted last week that from 2007 to 2012 he used fake investments to defraud clients of at least $839,000.

Waters pleaded guilty on Nov. 29 to 16 counts of securities fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, according to a press release from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The plea also included charges related to Waters' coin scheme, in which the Milton resident "defrauded coin customers out of as much as $7.8 million by selling coins at prices inflated, on average, by 600% and by inducing coin purchasers to return coins to him, on the false representation that he would sell those coins on the customers’ behalf, when, in fact, he sold most or all of the coins and kept the proceeds for himself," according to the SEC.

Waters has been detained since Oct. 2, 2012 and is now barred from the securities industry. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April 2013.

For more information on the various charges, see the following articles:

http://braintree.patch.com/articles/7-8-million-coin-scheme-among-new-charges-hitting-braintree-ceo

http://braintree.patch.com/articles/sec-charges-braintree-firm-with-misuse-of-investor-money

http://braintree.patch.com/articles/head-of-braintree-financial-firm-allegedly-defies-federal-asset-freeze