Apr 13, 2015 1 min read

A Cecil Township investment broker was sentenced April 10 to spend 2 ½ years in federal prison in a fraud case in which he misappropriated $313,000 of his clients’ money, court records show.

U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer also sentenced James Grimes to three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty Sept. 22 to wire fraud and filing false income tax returns from 2007 to 2009.

Grimes, 35, of Lawrence, forged documents to authorize the transfer of some of his clients’ money he had invested on their behalf as a licensed broker with Financial Network Investment Corp. between April 1, 2006, and March 1, 2010. He drew checks against one of his client’s accounts and made them payable to himself, the indictment states.

Fischer said he preyed on the elderly to carry out the series of crimes, but she slightly reduced his sentence because he showed remorse and understood his need to “make amends,” said Margaret Philbin, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton in Pittsburgh.

He also failed to report $241,000 in income from 2007 to 2009 and was ordered to pay $405,717 in restitution.