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A federal jury in Watertown, New York, has reached
a guilty verdict in the eight-day trial of a Canadian charged with embezzling
from the pension plan of a Massena, New York, nursing home.
According to John McGlynn, regional inspector
general for investigations of the U. S. Labor Department’s Office of the
Inspector General, Allan Huppe, 40, of Oakville, Ontario, was found guilty of
two counts of wire fraud and one count of embezzlement from an employee benefit
plan. Huppe, charged with embezzling $750,000 from the retirement plan of the
Highland Nursing Home in Massena, had been arrested in Buffalo August 20, 1998
as he attempted to enter the U.S. via the Peace Bridge from Canada.
McGlynn said the case involved transfers, of
$350,000, then $400,000 of the retirement plan’s funds to banks in Canada
and Bermuda, which Huppe and others later transferred to other banks and
partnerships in Nigeria, Japan, and elsewhere. On repeated occasions, according
to the August, 1998, indictment, Huppe provided written confirmation to the
trustees of the retirement plan that deposit balances at his company, Navy
Street Bancorp were in excess of $750,000 when in reality the funds had been
disbursed. The indictment charges that Huppe used monies deposited from the
retirement plan for various personal purposes.
The maximum penalty for the embezzlement and wire
fraud violations is five years ' imprisonment. Sentencing is scheduled for
November, 1999.
McGlynn praised the work done by Special Agent Louis Alessi and
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the Labor Department’s
Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration. The prosecution was led by
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Olmstead in Syracuse. |
