Jailed Financial Advisor Resorts to Voodoo
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Facing 22 years in jail for stealing $19 million from client retirement plans, Barry Stokes made creative use of his jail time while awaiting sentencing: He crafted voodoo dolls of his financial victims and stuck pins in them.
No word on whether those he stole from felt Stokes’ pricks, but the Nashville judge in charge of sentencing did show leniency on the 52-year old former AIG-affiliated financial advisor for his cooperation with authorities, handing him a 12-and-a-half-year sentence on Thursday. The judge also ordered Stokes pay back the $19 million in restitution.
Pins and dolls were just a part of Stokes’ routine, apparently. He was also seeing a psychic, who according to evidence presented at his sentencing, Stokes wrote letters to saying he was lighting candles and throwing salt over his shoulder to also keep creditors away.
Stokes, a 52-year financial advisor, was the owner of 1Point Solutions, an AIG Financial Advisors affiliated firm in Dickson, Tennessee. He pleaded guilty to more than 30 counts of embezzlement in September 2008. He was charged in 2006 and has been held in Davidson County ever since.
