Financial advisor convicted of fleecing client for entire retirement savings

An ex-financial consultant from Middlesex County risks decades in prison at his August sentencing, for taking over and spending a factory worker's $225,000 retirement nest egg.

In a Trenton federal courtroom, Jesse Holovacko, 39, of Sayreville, was convicted of six counts of wire fraud and one count of investment advisor fraud, according to the office of Acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick.

Each wire fraud charge carries a potential 20-year sentence and $250,000 fine. The investment advisor fraud charge includes a possible five-year term and $10,000 fine.

Jurors deliberated for an hour before returning the verdict, authorities said.

According to investigators, Holovacko met the client and his co-workers at their place of employment in 2012, enlisted the victim as a client, and transferred his pension savings into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA).

Between December 2013 and August 2014, Holovacko convinced the victim to transfer the IRA funds into a checking account, on the premise of buying bonds, authorities said, instructing the victim to write cashier's checks payable to Holovacko. The victim wrote 18 cashier's checks, totalling $225,000.

Investigators said that Holovacko deposited them in his personal account, and used it to pay for a carloan, mortgage payments, restaurant meals, concerts, clubs, and baseball game tickets, and setting aside $150,000 cash. Authorities said that Holovacko continued the ruse by promising to give the worker documentation of the bond transactions.