COEUR d'ALENE - A 63-year-old Coeur d'Alene woman pleaded guilty this week to wire fraud for misappropriating more than $800,000 from a client's account, U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson announced Friday.

JoAnn Jackson, an investment adviser, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Coeur d'Alene on Aug. 19.

Jackson's attorney, federal public defender Andrea George, wasn't at her office Friday and was unavailable for comment.

Jackson became a licensed stockbroker in Idaho in 1994. Early in her career, she came into contact with the victim, who eventually put all her investment accounts under Jackson's care, according to the plea agreement document.

"Over the years, Jackson and (the victim) became close personal friends," the document stated.

In 2004, Jackson became a registered investment adviser representative with Moloney Securities. The victim transferred her accounts to Moloney.

In May 2007, Jackson opened a Moloney account in her daughter's name, without her daughter's knowledge.

"Sometime in 2008, Jackson told her daughter that (Jackson) had some banking problems and could not have a bank account in her name," the document states.

The daughter allowed Jackson to deposit what the daughter thought were Jackson's paychecks into the daughter's local bank account.

In truth, the money going into the bank account was money Jackson stole from the victim's Moloney account.

Initially, Jackson used a multi-step process to steal the victim's money.

Jackson first moved the stolen money into her daughter's Moloney account, then wire transferred the money to her daughter's local bank account.

Jackson either obtained cash from the bank account or had her daughter pay bills for her.

Later in the scheme, Jackson forged checks against the victim's Moloney account and deposited the forged checks into her daughter's account.

Jackson has agreed to make restitution in the amount of $811,084.

The charge of wire fraud is punishable by as long as 20 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the value of the money stolen, and as much as three years of supervised release. She pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 3, before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Coeur d'Alene.

The case was investigated by the FBI.

The announcement in this case is part of efforts underway by President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was created in November 2009 to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.