Michigan Contractor Sentenced in Pension Embezzlement

December 3, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A federal judge in Michigan has sentenced a contractor to a day in prison and four months in a halfway house for embezzling $745,000 from two company pension plans.

A Detroit Free Press news report said U.S. District Judge David Lawson also ordered Frank Vallecorsa, 77, of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan to serve six months of home confinement with an electronic tether and pay restitution.

The newspaper said Vallecorsa’s lawyer, Thomas Cranmer, told Lawson that Vallecorsa borrowed $1.2 million from the pension funds in the 2001 to 2003 period to keep American International Inc. afloat and had repaid all but $745,000 by the time his actions came to light.

Lawson said he was impressed by Vallecorsa’s continuing efforts to repay all but $250,000, and hopes the sentence will allow him to repay the rest, according to the newspaper.

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