KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Blue Springs, Mo., man has been convicted by a federal jury of money laundering related to his wife’s embezzlement of nearly $825,000 from her Sugar Creek, Mo., employer.
Thomas D. Hutchens, 41, of Blue Springs, was found guilty of seven counts of money laundering.
Hutchens was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 20, 2011. Hutchens conducted financial transactions with money that his wife, Shanna M. Hutchens, had embezzled from Richardson Hauling, Inc., in Sugar Creek. Both Thomas and Shanna Hutchens were employed by Richardson Hauling and Thomas Hutchens also operated his own business.
Shanna Hutchens stole $824,394 from Richardson Hauling between September 2004 and October 2008. During that time, the couple filed joint tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service and their adjusted gross income ranged from $1,886 to $62,731. Also during that time, $534,076 was deposited into a business bank account on which Thomas Hutchens was the sole signatory. Each of the seven counts of conviction charge Hutchens with making purchases from his business bank account with the embezzled funds. Those purchases included two Dodge Chargers, a Ford Excursion, a GMC Yukon Denali, a Caribbean cruise, a down payment on a house, and an IRS tax payment.
Shanna Hutchens pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering and was sentenced on Nov. 9, 2010, to 46 months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered her to pay $818,987 in restitution.
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