Federal prosecutors have sentenced a Missouri man to four years in prison after he stole more than $373,000 from clients who believed their money was going into retirement investments.
Bob Hunter, 72, of Springfield, was sentenced Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Megan Blair Benton on one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
Hunter presented himself as an investment advisor and sold Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans (SERPs) to local executives.
“Hunter advertised SERPs to area executives to invest their money to build an investment retirement account that would be available to the investor during their retirement years.”
Instead of directing the money into legitimate accounts, he spent it on personal expenses unrelated to the plans.
Clients learned of the theft only after receiving false statements that claimed their accounts held money that did not exist.
“Hunter’s clients only became aware of his fraud after realizing he was misleading them with false investment reports that claimed they had money in their investment accounts that never truly existed, known as ‘lulling’ letters or documents. These lulling letters and documents significantly delayed investors from reporting this fraud scheme to law enforcement and even attempted to conceal the nature and scope of his true embezzlement.”
Hunter must serve three years of supervised release after prison and repay $373,230.50 in restitution.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney handled the prosecution, with the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducting the inquiry.
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