A Denver investment adviser who took in $1.2 million from 30 investors and lost it within days or weeks of receiving it was recently ordered to repay the full amount, pay a penalty, and spent three years in prison.

Ian Gregory Bell, 36, was sentenced Sept. 12.

Bell was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2024 on eight counts of wire fraud, five counts of mail fraud, and five counts of money laundering. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in May.

Investigators discovered Bell began misrepresenting his gains to his investors in early 2020, a little more than two years after he obtained an entry-level license.

"Bell

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