Baker City investment adviser pleads guilty in 17-year fraud scheme

A Baker City investment adviser has admitted to a fraud scheme federal prosecutors say ran for nearly 17 years, turning a trusted local role into a long-running source of losses for at least 14 investors.

Jeffrey Thomas Higgins, 54, pleaded guilty June 2 to investment adviser fraud. Prosecutors said he worked as an investment adviser in Baker City from December 2007 through June 2024 and stole clients’ shares of stock, sold them and moved the proceeds into his own account.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon said the case caused at least $1.6 million in losses. As part of the plea agreement, Higgins agreed to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine and three years of supervised release, with sentencing set for Dec. 7, 2026.

Court records say the scheme relied on repeated deception. Prosecutors said Higgins told investors he was buying stock for them at a discount when those purchases were never made on their behalf. The filing also says “true-cost” stock statements were mailed to a post office box controlled by Higgins, giving the appearance that client holdings were being managed legitimately while the money was being siphoned off elsewhere.

The FBI is investigating the criminal case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bryan Chinwuba and Andrew T. Ho. For Baker County, the case lands hard because it involves a familiar professional who allegedly used his local standing to exploit clients over many years, not a one-time mistake but a pattern that stretched through much of two decades.

The criminal plea is only part of the fallout. On April 6, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint accusing Higgins of misappropriating more than $800,000 worth of securities from 12 clients between about September 2017 and February 2024 through a sham investment program he called Cumulus. The SEC said he used falsified documents and signatures and created fictitious annual reports to make clients believe their money was growing.

SEC records show Higgins had 22 years of experience in the securities industry. He was associated with Financial West Group from 2001 to 2017 and Western International Securities from 2017 to 2024, and FINRA has barred him from associating with a broker-dealer firm. The guilty plea now moves the Baker City case into its next phase, with restitution, sentencing and potential recovery for victims still ahead.