HUNTINGTON, W.Va. –An ex-law firm office manager in Huntington was sentenced Thursday for bank fraud.
U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers sentenced Todd M. Chapman, 58, of Huntington to four years and three months in prison, which will followed by five years of supervised release. Chapman was also ordered to pay $602,362.97 in restitution.
According to a release from U.S. Attorney Moore Capito, Chapman admitted to embezzling funds from a now-defunct Huntington law firm while he was employed at their office manager. The money he embezzled was from client trust accounts and proceeds from a Paycheck Protection Plan loan authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
Court documents stated that Chapman was employed at the law firm for approximately 30 years. The embezzling began in 2016, when Chapman wrote himself unauthorized checks from the firm’s operating accounts and client trust accounts. He also admitted that he forged signatures on checks, created false documents, made false statements under oath, and made false statements to federal law enforcement agents who were investigating the loss of client funds at the firm.
In 2022, Chapman ceased working at the law firm.
According to the release, Chapman embezzled at $409,000 from the estates of three deceased firm clients, $100,000 that one minor client was supposed to receive upon turning 18, and $15,838.84 of an initial $20,000 settlement deposit for another minor client who suffered an injury as an infant.
He embezzled $13,686.21 from a $20,375 PPP loan, which the firm had received to provide emergency financial aid during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The court concluded that Chapman’s crime was despicable and cold-hearted,” Capito said. “People who needed help, including injured children, put their trust in this law firm and Todd Chapman shattered that trust. He accomplished this by betraying the trust that the law firm place in him. My office and our law enforcement partners will never tolerate such attempts to prey upon the public or threaten its trust in our legal institutions.”