A former trader at IFS Securities Inc. was ordered to serve more than 16 years in prison for unauthorized bond trades in 2019 that led to $30 million in losses and bankrupted the Chicago broker-dealer. Keith Wakefield, 52, was convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud in 2024 for hiding his losses on US Treasury trades by creating false records to make it look like he’d profited from the transactions. He also embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from 2017 to 2019 by faking records to generate commissions he wasn’t entitled to, the government said.

Wakefield, who was head of fixed-income trading at IFS Securities, was sentenced to 16 years and eight months behind bars Wednesday by US District Judge Steven C. Seeger in Chicago, federal prosecutors said in a statement Friday. Wakefield faced as long as 20 years.

“This crime was driven by pure greed,” Assistant US Attorney Jared Hasten argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Defendant’s fraud had a ripple effect causing multiple financial institutions to lose money and causing IFS to go out of business.”

Attorneys for Wakefield couldn’t be immediately reached for comment after normal business hours Friday. The US Securities and Exchange Commission also sued him seeking repayment of the lost funds, court records show. The case is US v. Wakefield, 21-cr-00614, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).