Matson’s good aspect aside, Gibney said the case was not just about a uncomplicated theft.
“It’s a theft carried out by an officer of the court docket whilst acting as an officer of the court,” he mentioned.
“He stole $4 million,” Gibney claimed. The judge told Matson he was fortunate he experienced great lawyers who have been equipped to get a plea offer with the federal government in which he was not matter to forfeiting an additional $4 million.
“People who steal need to have to acquire a lesson from this scenario,” the decide included.
Matson’s criminal offense stemmed from his makes an attempt to thwart an investigation into his fraud even though a court docket-appointed trustee in the personal bankruptcy of the LandAmerica Financial Team. A federal investigation into those people allegations uncovered occasions of Matson’s embezzlement from the individual bankruptcy believe in between 2015 and 2018, of about $800,000.
Matson also manipulated the spending budget of the put up-bankruptcy wind-down so that he could divert cash to himself and other individuals just after the close of the LandAmerica personal bankruptcy, when he would no for a longer time be subject matter to scrutiny by lenders and the bankruptcy court docket, and was in a position to siphon away additional than $3.2 million for personalized payments to himself and other individuals.
The cash, having said that, was place into accounts managed by Matson and not put in, enabling Matson to return it, Brandon Michael Santos, a person of Matson’s lawyers, explained to Gibney on Monday. On Monday and in court docket papers submitted before, Matson’s lawyers cited the decline of his now-defunct former law firm, LeClairRyan loved ones pressures involving a sibling and her son and other problems all pressuring Matson at the time of the misconduct.