The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday a money manager and investment adviser in with offices in New York and Rhode Island will be charged with financial fraud — saying that she manipulated records and claims to ‘create’ a fake client with a billion dollar portfolio; aiming to attract legitimate investors and build credibility.

Locke Capital Management, Leila Jenkins routinely lied about the existence of her billion dollar client to potential investors, repeatedly using the claim to land new business. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Leila lied to SEC investigators and created fake documents for the Commission to analyze in 2008 to rationalize said client’s existence.

“Today’s enforcement action demonstrates that investment advisers who lure clients with false claims will be held accountable for their actions, in this case, the conduct was particularly egregious because Jenkins lied to the SEC staff to try to escape detection,” said George Curtis, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

The client accounts used where, according to Jenkins “confidential” and located in Switzerland, claiming that the adviser managed the assets, a net total of more than a billion U.S. dollars, in these accounts from at least 2003 onward. Lies and falsehoods surrounding the issue have been found in brochure, marketing texts — even after the lies were used to acquire new clients, the SEC alleges, the total managed funds under Jenkins were less than a fraction of this $1 billion set.

Jenkins maintains residences in Newport, R.I., and Palm Beach, Fla.

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