Financial Advisor Sentenced for Embezzling Millions from Pop Star Alanis Morissette, Others

As long as there are wealthy celebrities, there will be financially ravenous souls happy to try to separate them from their hard-earned dough by any means.

One such person, Jonathan Todd Schwartz, a purported ���financial advisor,��� was sentenced this past Wednesday to six years in the federal slammer for embezzling over $7 million from pop star Alanis Morissette and other clients, according to WMUR.com.

In the words of Morisette, Schwartz ���did this in a long, systematic, drawn-out and sinister manner.��� The singer claims that at the rate Schwartz was stealing from her, she would have had to declare bankruptcy inside of three years.

It was while Schwartz was working at GSO Business Management, a high-profile celebrity management firm in Sherman Oaks, California, that he stole nearly $5 million from Morisette, as well as another $2 million from five other GSO clients.

According to Bernard Gudvi, founder of GSO, the reputation ���hit��� suffered by his company from Schwartz���s outrageous behavior has demanded that he lay off nearly a dozen employees, and the resulting, overall financial loss to his business is in the neighborhood of $20 million.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee actually sentenced Schwartz to a period longer than the five years sought be prosecutors, citing the ���sheer audaciousness of this conduct.��� In addition to his six-year prison term, Gee also sentenced Schwartz to pay $8.6 million in restitution.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large