Investment advisor pleads guilty to tax charges, owes IRS $1.2M

An investment advisor from Vadnais Heights accused of misappropriating about $1.5 million in client money pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of tax evasion.

The Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office said 43-year-old Joel William Carlson made the plea in federal court to tax evasion for 2010 and 2011.

Carlson was working as an investment advisor during that time, and placed $1.5 million in cash and investments from clients and his father into an account called Trust Financial Group. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the account was actually Carlson's own bank account.

He spent the money on personal items, lied to his clients about the investments and didn't file income tax returns for those two years.

According to the plea agreement, Carlson also owed taxes from 2005-2009. In his guilty plea, Carlson agreed to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution to the IRS.

"The IRS enforces the nation's tax laws, but also takes particular interest in cases where someone, for their own personal benefit, has taken what belonged to others," Special Agent in Charge Kelly R. Jackson of the IRS Criminal Investigation, St. Paul Field Office, said in a statement.

Carlson also will pay restitution to his former clients. That amount will be determined before sentencing.