FDC Philadelphia, the federal detention center where disbarred Richmond attorney Bruce Matson is currently being held after being sentenced to four years in prison for stealing money from the LandAmerica bankruptcy estate. (Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Prisons)
The fallout from Bruce Matson’s fleecing of the LandAmerica bankruptcy estate has followed him to federal prison.
The incarcerated and disbarred Richmond attorney was sued last week for nearly $500,000 by Benjamin Ackerly, who took over as trustee of the LandAmerica case after Matson’s ousting from the same position in 2019.
Ackerly alleges in the 80-page complaint that Matson breached his fiduciary duty to the estate due to his theft of millions of dollars from the bankruptcy trust account over a four-year period.
Bruce Matson
Matson had served as trustee on the case from its inception a decade earlier until it was discovered that around $3 million went missing and ended up in personal accounts in his and an associate’s name.
The theft earned Matson a nearly four-year prison sentence, which he is currently serving.
Ackerly seeks a judgment forcing Matson to pay back unspecified costs incurred by Ackerly’s camp to-date and in the future related to unwinding the mess left by Matson’s actions. Ackerly also wants $480,000 in fees Matson paid to himself while he was “out of trust,” the point after which he had begun to comingle funds from the trust with his own funds.
That’s despite Matson having already paid more than $4 million back into the trust from the time he was caught stealing the money in 2019 through October 2021.
The lawsuit is the result of facts uncovered during Matson’s criminal case, in which he pled guilty to one count of obstruction of an official proceeding. The obstruction was related to lies Matson told during the ensuing investigation after the initial missing $3 million first came to light.
In his own investigation, Ackerly states in the filing that he also has discovered additional facts, stating that Matson was “‘out of trust’ much earlier than 2019” and in fact first began comingling money in 2015.
The comingling included the use of a fraudulent bank account, overpaying trustee fees to himself and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to his former law firm LeClairRyan for his own benefit. He also used LandAmerica funds to make charitable contributions in his name to groups like the Appalachian Trail and Veritas School and to pay for a holiday party he once hosted at a golf course.
“(Matson) attempted to hide his fiduciary duty breaches through fraudulent misrepresentations and hidden transactions,” the lawsuit states.
Ackerly is represented in the matter by attorney Tyler Brown of Hunton Andrews Kurth.
It’s unclear who is representing Matson in the case. He is currently being held at FDC Philadelphia, an administrative detention center. He is expected to eventually serve the bulk of his sentence at FCI Cumberland, a federal penitentiary with a lower security camp in Allegany County, Maryland.
FDC Philadelphia, the federal detention center where disbarred Richmond attorney Bruce Matson is currently being held after being sentenced to four years in prison for stealing money from the LandAmerica bankruptcy estate. (Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Prisons)
The fallout from Bruce Matson’s fleecing of the LandAmerica bankruptcy estate has followed him to federal prison.
The incarcerated and disbarred Richmond attorney was sued last week for nearly $500,000 by Benjamin Ackerly, who took over as trustee of the LandAmerica case after Matson’s ousting from the same position in 2019.
Ackerly alleges in the 80-page complaint that Matson breached his fiduciary duty to the estate due to his theft of millions of dollars from the bankruptcy trust account over a four-year period.
Bruce Matson
Matson had served as trustee on the case from its inception a decade earlier until it was discovered that around $3 million went missing and ended up in personal accounts in his and an associate’s name.
The theft earned Matson a nearly four-year prison sentence, which he is currently serving.
Ackerly seeks a judgment forcing Matson to pay back unspecified costs incurred by Ackerly’s camp to-date and in the future related to unwinding the mess left by Matson’s actions. Ackerly also wants $480,000 in fees Matson paid to himself while he was “out of trust,” the point after which he had begun to comingle funds from the trust with his own funds.
That’s despite Matson having already paid more than $4 million back into the trust from the time he was caught stealing the money in 2019 through October 2021.
The lawsuit is the result of facts uncovered during Matson’s criminal case, in which he pled guilty to one count of obstruction of an official proceeding. The obstruction was related to lies Matson told during the ensuing investigation after the initial missing $3 million first came to light.
In his own investigation, Ackerly states in the filing that he also has discovered additional facts, stating that Matson was “‘out of trust’ much earlier than 2019” and in fact first began comingling money in 2015.
The comingling included the use of a fraudulent bank account, overpaying trustee fees to himself and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to his former law firm LeClairRyan for his own benefit. He also used LandAmerica funds to make charitable contributions in his name to groups like the Appalachian Trail and Veritas School and to pay for a holiday party he once hosted at a golf course.
“(Matson) attempted to hide his fiduciary duty breaches through fraudulent misrepresentations and hidden transactions,” the lawsuit states.
Ackerly is represented in the matter by attorney Tyler Brown of Hunton Andrews Kurth.
It’s unclear who is representing Matson in the case. He is currently being held at FDC Philadelphia, an administrative detention center. He is expected to eventually serve the bulk of his sentence at FCI Cumberland, a federal penitentiary with a lower security camp in Allegany County, Maryland.
Many people have opined that this was not Matson’s first rodeo. It would be foolish to think that he “only” stole money once in the LandScam BK lol
Was Rob Smith aware of what was going on, or were accounts set up in his name as part of the scam?
He should suffer a personal financial penalty not just repaying what he stole.