Convicted embezzler Barry Stokes, former owner of a Dickson, Tenn.-based AIG Financial Advisors affiliate called 1Point Solutions, whiled away his time in jail performing rites and ceremonies that included fashioning dolls of his victims and sticking pins in them, according to evidence presented at his sentencing last week.

 

As an addendum to his interest in West Indian folk culture, Mr Stokes consulted a psychic while in jail - and duly performed ceremonies that involved incantations, lighting of candles and tossing salt in a bid to keep creditors at bay.

 

On 3 September, Mr Stokes was sentenced to 12 and a half years and ordered to repay the $19 million he bilked from his clients' pension plans, according to a report in Registered Rep.

 

Mr Stokes pleaded guilty to 30 counts of embezzlement in September 2008. Prior to his sentencing, he'd been holed up in Tennessee's  Davidson County Jail since 2006. Now he's off to prison.