Vantage Benefits Administrators co-owners Jeff and Wendy Richie were sentenced to prison last week for their roles in a $15 million embezzlement scheme from retirement plans on which they served as the third-party administrator.
The husband and wife received a combined 18-plus years in federal prison, according to the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas CBS affiliate.
Wendy Richie, 59, admitted to two counts of theft from an employee benefit plan and one count of aggravated identity theft. She was sentenced to 132 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $12.6 million in restitution.
Jeff Richie, 55, pled to two counts of aiding and abetting theft from an employee benefit plan. He was sentenced to 87 months and ordered to pay $7.4 million in restitution.
According to plea papers, Wendy Richie used fund beneficiaries’ personal information to submit $15.2 million in fraudulent distribution requests to Matrix Trust, the funds’ custodian.
Instead of depositing the money into beneficiaries’ accounts, however, she transferred it into Vantage’s operating account, then into personal bank accounts.
Even after a Vantage employee confronted Jeffery Richie about his wife’s conduct, Wendy Richie continued to embezzle money from the funds. At least $6.2 million of the $15.2 million was taken with his knowledge.
Previous allegations
The Dallas Morning News reported that Jeff Richie was sanctioned in 2008 by the Securities and Exchange Commission and barred from the investment business for three years ‘for conducting an unregistered and fraudulent offering’ of securities in the retirement-services company he was running at the time.”
Richie neither admitted nor denied the allegations in that case, the paper adds, and the agency waived a $4.3 million judgment based on his financial condition.
The firm, which billed itself as “professional fiduciary” was hit with civil suits in 2018 related to the case.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
