The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged investment advisor Jeremy Drake with defrauding two clients, a high-profile professional athlete and the athlete’s wife, by deceiving them about the investment advisory fees they were paying.

The SEC alleges that Drake went to elaborate lengths to conceal his fraud, creating and sending false documents and masquerading as another person to corroborate his lies.

The regulator says that Drake, then with Los Angeles-based HCR Wealth Advisors, deceived the clients for more than three years, telling them that they paid a special “VIP” annual rate of 0.15% to 0.20% of their assets under management when in fact they were paying 1%. Drake’s deception led the clients to pay $1.2 million more in management fees than he was claiming.  Drake personally received approximately $900,000 of incentive compensation from the fees they paid.

According to the SEC’s complaint, lodged in the US District Court for the Central District of California, Drake lied frequently to the clients and their representatives and sent them false and misleading emails, deceptive fee reports and other fabricated documents. The complaint alleges that in June 2016, as one of the clients demanded an explanation about the fees, Drake created the persona of “Ron Stenson,” who purportedly corroborated Drake’s story. The complaint alleges that Drake was unmasked, before admitting to one of the clients that he had been lying and warning her that if she reported his misconduct it could result in bad publicity for her husband.

The SEC charged Drake under the anti-fraud provisions of the Investment Advisors Act 1940. The SEC is seeking a permanent injunction, return of Drake’s allegedly ill-gotten gains plus interest, and penalties.