An Indian-American investment advisor has been sentenced to 10 years in prison following his conviction on 20 counts of fraud in connection with a scheme, which bilked 15 investors of approximately USD 12.5 million.

Amit Mathur, a resident of Shrewsbury in Massachusetts, was sentenced on May 12 by the Federal District Court in Worcester following his conviction on 18 counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud, the Boston Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said.

The 38-year-old Indian-American has also been asked to pay restitution to his victims, the FBI said.

Mathur held himself out as a fantastically successful investment adviser operating a firm in Worcester known as Entrust Capital Management, Inc. During that period, he received approximately USD 16 million from investors.

According to evidence presented at trial, Mathur told investors - in person and in marketing literature – that Entrust was operating a hedge fund that consistently achieved positive rates of return and did better than the general stock market indices.

In this way, FBI said, Mathur lulled his investors into a false sense of security to persuade them to invest money and to leave their money with Entrust for the long term.

During its entire existence, according to the evidence introduced at trial, the Entrust fund suffered consistent losses. Moreover, in several instances, he never even invested the money investors gave him.

Instead, the FBI charged, he misappropriated more than USD 5 million of investors' money for his own personal use, including luxury items such as several cars, gambling, New England Patriots football season tickets, jewelry and clothing.