Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael K. Fithen, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service, Miami Field Office, Duncan Foster, Chief of Police, Coral Springs Police Department, and J. Thomas Cardwell, Commissioner, State of Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation, announced today’s sentencing of defendant Shawn Roberts, 52, of Parkland, Florida. U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn sentenced Roberts to 63 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Roberts was also ordered to pay $1,135,292 in restitution to a former client.

Roberts pled guilty on February 11, 2011 to a criminal Information charging him with one count of mail fraud involving the theft of a client’s monies. According to the charging document and statements made in court during today’s hearing, from 2005 to April12, 2009, Roberts was a financial advisor at Applied Benefits and Concepts, Inc., in Coral Springs, Florida. In this capacity, Roberts handled investments for clients, and misappropriated more than $1,135,292 from a client. Instead of investing the client’s funds as directed by the client, Roberts converted the funds to his personal use. To hide the fraud, Roberts prepared and mailed letters to his client, falsely reflecting that the funds had been invested as directed.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the United States Secret Service, the Coral Springs Police Department, and the State of Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey H. Kay.

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A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.