BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A Baton Rouge man was sentenced to 57 months in prison after being convicted of wire fraud, interstate communication of an extortionate threat, and attempted escape.
According to United States Attorney Ronald Gathe Jr., in August 2017, Monty Matthews, 52, reportedly told two victims he could make investments on their behalf and get a return with very high rates. Matthews demanded the victims have an investment account with him, surpassing $550,000. Due to Matthews’ false investment opportunities, along with threats to injure the victims, if payments were not made, the victims delivered over 4,000 cash payments to Matthews.
The Department of Justice said on March 23, 2022, Matthews was in the custody of FBI agents for a lawful arrest related to felony charges when Matthews attempted to escape but was not successful.
When determining an appropriate sentence, District Judge John deGravelles considered the impact of Matthews’ criminal activity on victims who were over the age of 60 years old, resulting in them losing over $1 million of retirement savings. Judge deGravelles also took account of the injuries caused to the federal agents.
Matthews was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,066,853 in restitution.
