By Jennifer Keiper, WLS-AM 890 News

(CHICAGO) He was supposed to invest clients’ money, instead, he used it for his lavish lifestyle.

Federal prosecutors say Stephen Browere, founder of Stephens Capital Management Incorporated, promised big returns to get clients to buy more than $1.6 million dollars in promissory notes in Douglas Capital Corporation in Lisle.

What he didn’t tell them was that his relative was the president of that company. Feds say that the life savings and retirement money that was handed over by clients…was used by Browere to perform his own trades, as well as to buy a yacht and a BMW.

They say he hid the fraud by using payments from some investors to make interest payments to others and obtained power of attorney on behalf of an elderly client with dementia to get the client’s more than $2 million dollars to buy property and pay other clients.

Browere, who has pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison. He also has to pay almost $4 million dollars in restitution to the victims.