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St. Louis-area investment handler imprisoned in $5 million fraud

(via Flickr/neil conway)

A St. Louis-area investment handler has been ordered to spend eight years in federal prison and repay more than $4.3 million to often-elderly clients he bilked.

Federal prosecutors say 32-year-old Joshua Gould, who was sentenced Friday in St. Louis, spent the money on such things as jewelry and strip clubs in neighboring Illinois.

Gould and 47-year-old David Rubin pleaded guilty in April to federal wire-fraud counts alleging they embezzled about $1.5 million from a retired couple.

Gould, who was working as an independent representative of Woodbury Financial Services, also pleaded guilty to mail fraud for stealing an additional $3.5 million from about two dozen brokerage clients and beneficiaries of a trust fund, many of them elderly.

Rubin is to be sentenced Sept. 23.