SPRINGFIELD, MO. — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Missouri, Western), published as received.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for a fraud scheme that included wire fraud and money laundering involving the fraudulent embezzlement of his investment clients’ retirement funds.
Bob Hunter, 72, was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Megan Blair Benton to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Hunter was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment, followed by three years of post-release supervision, payment of restitution in the amount of $373,230.50.
Hunter presented himself as an investment and retirement professional in Springfield, Mo., and promoted various retirement programs, including Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans (SERP). 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 utilizing the invested funds for retirement accounts, Hunter instead used those monies for his own personal expenses and expenses completely unrelated to the administration of the SERPs.
In all, $373,230.50 in intended retirement funds were embezzled by Hunter from his clients. 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.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
