A New Jersey financial planner who spent more than a decade taking money from families who trusted him with their college savings and retirement plans has admitted in federal court that it was a Ponzi scheme. Paul Beers, 67, of Clinton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on Thursday, October 29, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch in Trenton federal court to a one-count Information charging him with wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer announced. Through his Bedminster-based firm, KJM Financial, Beers took in more than $11 million from at least 65 victims between January 2015 and November 2025; the victims' actual losses exceed $9.7 million.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey
The New Jersey Hills newspapers, which cover the Hunterdon and Somerset county communities where Beers lived and worked, reported the same plea: Beers, a Clinton resident who offered college planning and consulting alongside financial planning, admitted the scheme ran for more than ten years before it collapsed in November 2025. Sentencing is scheduled for March 9, 2027, and the plea agreement requires Beers to make restitution to his victims.
Source: New Jersey Hills / Hunterdon Review
How the scheme worked: trust, cash and fake statements
According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court, Beers owned and operated KJM Financial in Bedminster, Somerset County, from as early as January 2015 through November 2025. The firm offered college planning and consulting and financial planning services — the kind of business families turn to when they are saving for a child's university education or a parent's retirement. Beers induced investors to hand over cash by promising their funds would be invested in various financial accounts, including what he called guaranteed income contracts.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey
Instead of investing the money as promised, Beers misappropriated it, the Justice Department said. He used victim funds to pay his own business and personal expenses and — in the classic mechanics of a Ponzi scheme — to pay back certain earlier investors, which kept the scheme alive and avoided detection. At times he created false quarterly and other reports that purported to show investment gains on the money victims had entrusted to him. The reports were fake, prosecutors said, and were used to mask the scheme. In November 2025, the scheme fell apart, leaving aggregate losses of more than $9.7 million.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey
U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer: 'The defendant turned a position of trust into an instrument of fraud, preying on community members who believed their money was being invested for their families’ future. He misappropriated $11 million and used false quarterly reports to conceal his scheme, leaving victims with losses exceeding $9.7 million.' FBI Newark Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy: 'Beers did more than steal money — he stole trust, security, and years of financial planning from hardworking families… History is littered with fraudsters who seem to forget the simple principle that Ponzi schemes always fall apart.'
Who investigated, and who prosecuted
U.S. Attorney Frazer credited FBI special agents, under Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy in Newark, with the investigation that led to the guilty plea. He also thanked the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, under Prosecutor John P. McDonald and Chief of County Detectives Meredith McKay, and the Bedminster Township Police Department, under Chief Francesco Bernardo, for their assistance. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Garelick of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Division in Trenton. Beers's defence counsel is Michael Baldassare of Baldassare & Mara, LLC.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey
Why this matters in central New Jersey — and for diaspora savers
Bedminster and the surrounding Somerset and Hunterdon county towns sit in one of the most affluent suburban corridors in New Jersey, and the wider central New Jersey region — including nearby Middlesex County communities such as Edison — is home to one of the largest South Asian and Punjabi diaspora populations in the United States. College planning is a particularly sensitive product in those communities: families routinely save for years, often in cash-heavy small businesses and trucking, to fund a child's education, and an adviser who promises 'guaranteed' income contracts speaks directly to that anxiety. Prosecutors say that is exactly the trust Beers monetised: victims believed their money was being invested for their families' future, and the fake quarterly statements made the lie look routine and safe for more than a decade.
The case is also a textbook illustration of the warning signs regulators repeat in every investment-fraud case: guaranteed returns, paper statements produced by the adviser himself rather than an independent custodian, and pressure to hand over cash. A legitimate investment is held by a third-party custodian that sends its own statements; when the same person who takes your money also prints the reports showing your 'gains,' there is no independent check — which is how this scheme survived from 2015 to 2025.
What happens next
Beers returns to Judge Kirsch's courtroom for sentencing on March 9, 2027. The wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross loss to the victims or gain to the defendant, whichever is greatest. His plea agreement requires him to make restitution to the victims, although how much money can actually be recovered for the 65-plus victims is not yet known. The FBI says its investigation is ongoing, and anyone who believes they may be a victim of Paul Beers can contact the FBI's Newark victim-assistance team at NK-Victim-Assistance@FBI.GOV, the Justice Department said.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey