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Matthew Hutcheson Gets 17 Years in Prison

The Associated Press is reporting that a federal judge has ordered former ERISA fiduciary Matthew Hutcheson to spend more than 17 years in prison for raiding pension funds under his control.

Hutcheson is a former trustee and fiduciary for the G Fiduciary Retirement Income Security Plan and the Retirement Security Plan & Trust. During an eight day trial, the government presented evidence that beginning in 2010, Hutcheson perpetrated schemes to defraud the G Fid and RSPT plans, and misappropriated over $5 million of plan assets. He was convicted on 17 counts of felony wire fraud on April 15, 2013.

The sentence was handed down Wednesday, July 31st. According to a DOL press release, in announcing the sentence, Judge Nielsen made specific findings that Hutcheson defrauded more than 250 individual victims, used sophisticated means to commit his offenses, abused a position of private trust as a fiduciary and trustee for the plans, and willfully obstructed justice by committing perjury at trial and offering a fraudulent document into evidence.

The judge ordered Hutcheson to begin serving his prison term immediately.