Woman Sentenced for Retirement Plan Embezzlement

retirement plan, 401k, theft, fiduciary
How best to protect against something like this?

An Oklahoma woman was sentenced last week to three years in federal prison for “embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a benefits plan for unionized engineers.”

The Oklahoman reports that 51-year-old Susan Michelle Tyson used the proceeds from her ill-gotten gains to “fix up her old house, make renovations to a new house, purchase a motorcycle and pickup, take vacations and give gifts to friends.

She admitted to taking a total of $467,352 of the retirement plan’s assets.

Tyson has a history of similar criminal activity, the paper adds, citing the prosecutor who said Tyson was convicted in 2000 in a similar case in Oklahoma City, but “spending only a few months in prison. Tyson also stole from a third employer, which was revealed during the 2000 investigation, according to prosecutors.”

Her attorney, Teresa Brown, said Tyson is remorseful, but U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton said Tyson “has no respect for the law, noting the previous conviction and a risk that she’ll cheat future employers,” and ordered Tyson pay $309,996 in restitution.

“Tyson, a former bookkeeper at Zenith American Solutions Inc. in Oklahoma City, was charged last year with wire fraud. In June, she pleaded guilty, admitting to making the fraudulent transfers to her own bank accounts between July 2014 and January 2017.”

John Sullivan
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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.

1 comment
  1. ERISA section 411 (29 U.S.C. 1111) makes it unlawful to appoint or hire as a fiduciary of, or even non-fiduciary service provider to, an employee-benefit plan a person who or that has been convicted of a crime “during or for the period of thirteen years after such conviction or after the end of such imprisonment, whichever is later[.]” After the 2000 conviction, how did Tyson get another job?

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