A Haddam man was recently sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding clients of his investment business.

Aaron J. Johnson, 37, was president and CIO of J. Capital Advisors, and was a registered investment advisor until Oct. 21, 2013, when his and J. Capital Advisors’ registration was revoked by the state of Connecticut.

Johnson became a registered investment advisor with Trade PMR, a Florida company that provides brokerage and custody services for registered investment advisors in April 2010. Almost immediately, Johnson began skimming excessive and unearned fees from client accounts. He would submit a request to Trade PMR for fees for a particular client supposedly earned during a particular time period, and Trade PMR would, in turn, arrange for those fees to be deducted from the client’s account and deposited into a J. Capital Advisors’ sundry account over which Johnson maintained exclusive control. When Trade PMR terminated its relationship with Johnson in December 2012, he had taken a total of $619,231.09 in excessive fees from 19 victim clients.

Johnson also attempted to obstruct, delay and prevent the discovery of the full scope of his scheme by falsely claiming to one of his victims. He also told investigators with the state of Connecticut Department of Banking that fees taken from a particular victim’s account were due to a “glitch” in his billing system. He submitted falsified documentation to Trade PMR, including bogus account statements for clients and letters of authorization that he forged purporting to allow him to take fees from client accounts. Johnson also submitted a falsified account statement to Department of Banking investigators in an attempt to show that he had funds with which to pay restitution.

He was ordered to pay full restitution to his victims.

Johnson was arrested on Feb. 17, 2016, and pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud on Feb. 23, 2017.

Johnson, who is released on a $250,000 bond, was ordered to report to prison on Oct. 2, 2017.