A Boston-area investment adviser was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for using his clients’ funds to make his own investments and to pay personal expenses.

James Polese, 52, of Wenham, was sentenced to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $30,000 and restitution in the amount of $462,000.

Polese pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy and investment adviser fraud, eight counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Co-conspirator Cornelius Peterson, 29, of Newton, was sentenced in June to 20 months in prison, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $462,000.

Polese and Peterson misappropriated approximately$500,000 from their clients by transferring funds out of their clients’ accounts without their knowledge or consent from approximately 2014 to June 2017.

Specifically, Polese and Peterson Aug. 20, 2014, used $100,000 from a client’s account to invest in a wind farm project despite the fact that it was not an investment opportunity authorized by their company.

Polese and Peterson used $400,000 from another client’s account to back a letter of credit in support of the wind farm project on May 15, 2015. On multiple occasions in 2017, Polese transferred funds from a client’s account to pay personal expenses, including college tuition payments and credit card bills. Polese and Peterson were terminated from the company in June 2017.