Hamden Man Sentenced In $300K Embezzlement Case: Officials

Hamden CT

15 June, 2022

3:30 PM

Description

HAMDEN, CT — A Hamden man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing more than $300,000 in retirement savings from multiple families, according to officials. Travis Smith, 44, was arrested in 2019 in connection with a "series of yearslong larcenies against multiple families who had entrusted their retirement savings with him as a purported investment advisor," according to Ansonia/Milford State's Attorney Margaret E. Kelley. Smith was accused of stealing from two families, one in Milford and another in Durham. Detective Mitchell Warwick of the Milford Police Department, with assistance from civil counsel and the Connecticut Banking Commission, determined that Smith had "repeatedly and persistently solicited the Milford and Durham victims to entrust their retirement savings with him over the course of many years," according to court documents. "Only months after being entrusted with over $300,000 in retirement savings, Smith created a shell limited liability corporation and associated bank account into which he embezzled the entirety of each victim's savings," officials wrote in a news release. "Over the course of 2015 and 2016, Smith then spent extravagantly on himself, undertaking vacations to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and spending thousands of dollars of the victims' money at the Mohegan Sun Casino." Smith pleaded guilty in each case to one count of first-degree larceny in a capped plea agreement that contemplated a total effective sentence of 18 years suspended after 12 years with a right to argue for less followed by five years of probation, according to Kelley. Smith was sentenced Tuesday to a total effective sentence between the two cases of 18 years, suspended after serving seven years and followed by five years of probation with "strict and specific conditions" related to his requirements of providing restitution to the multiple victims, according to Kelley. "The victims were deeply appreciative of the efforts of the Offices of the Ansonia/Milford and Middlesex State's Attorney and both satisfied with the sentence and grateful for the closure it brought them," the news release states.