Kimberly Kitts Charged with Stealing $3 Million

Kimberly Kitts – Former Royal Alliance Broker – Cape Cod

Have you suffered losses investing with Kimberly Kitts and Royal Alliance Associates? If so, the securities attorneys at The White Law Group may be able to help you to recover your losses by filing a FINRA Arbitration Claim.

According to a press announcement on July 19, the SEC has charged financial advisor Kimberly Kitts of Cape Cod, with stealing more than $3 million from her clients.

Kitts allegedly defrauded several clients during the course of six years, forging client signatures to make withdrawals from clients’ variable annuities and wiring funds from their brokerage accounts, as well as misleading some clients to withdraw funds for bogus tax payments, according to the SEC.

In total, Kitts purportedly stole more than $3 million through 82 unauthorized withdrawals from seven clients, using the money to pay for “several” luxury cars and vacations, among other personal expenses, according to the press release.

The SEC says that Kitts also falsified various documents to conceal her fraud.

Update on April 4, 2019

According to a press announcement, on March 20, 2019, Kitts was sentenced in a parallel criminal action to 87 months in prison and ordered to pay $3,085,939 in restitution. On November 19, 2018, Kitts pled guilty to charges filed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts of wire fraud, investment adviser fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

According to her FINRA Broker Check report, Kitts has been registered with Royal Alliance Associates in Palmer, MA from April 2004 until she was fired in November 2017 following allegations of fund misappropriation.

FINRA barred Kitts less than a month later, effective March 2018, after she failed to provide requested documents connected to an inquiry into her termination, the industry’s self-regulator says in her disclosure record.

Kitts has five customer complaints listed on her broker report, with one still pending from November 2018. Allegations include “conversion or misappropriation of funds” among others.

Failure to Supervise

The White Law Group is investigating the liability that Kitts’ FINRA registered employer, Royal Alliance Associates, may have for failure to properly supervise her.

Brokerage firms are required to properly supervise all advisors they employ and to ensure that those advisors are complying with applicable FINRA rules and regulations.  If these allegations can be proven and if it can be demonstrated that Kitts’s former employer failed to properly supervise her, her employer may be held responsible for the losses in a FINRA arbitration claim.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Franklin, Tennessee.

For more information on The White Law Group and its representation of investors in FINRA arbitration claims, visit https://whitesecuritieslaw.com.  For a free consultation with a securities attorney, please call the firm at 888-637-5510.