The owner of a former metal finishing business in Chicago was
recently sentenced to 46 months in prison after pleading guilty earlier this
year to federal embezzlement charges. According to Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United
States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, the defendant was
president and owner of the former Northwestern Plating Works, Inc. (NPW). He
pled guilty to one count of embezzling more than $830,000 from an employee
pension plan.
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The defendant admitted that between September 2001 and March
2005 he embezzled over $830,000 from NPW's employee profit sharing plan,
originally established to provide retirement income to eligible employees. The
defendant administered the plan and served as its sole trustee as well as the
sole member of the committee acting as plan fiduciary. He maintained custody of
the plan's funds in a brokerage account to which he had sole access.
In addition to imprisonment, the sentence also orders the
defendant to serve 200 hours of community service, pay $832,890 in restitution
to victims of the pension fraud, and undergo 3 years of supervised release.