Disbarred Plymouth Attorney and Accountant Indicted in Connection With Stealing Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars From Client’s Family

For immediate release:

6/29/2021                                                    Office of Attorney General Maura Healey

WOBURN — An accountant and now-disbarred attorney from Plymouth has been indicted in connection with a scheme to embezzle more than $300,000 from the family of one of his clients, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.

Bruce Lavigne was indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury on the charges of Larceny over $250 (2 counts), Fiduciary Embezzlement (1 count), and Obtaining a Signature by False Pretenses (2 counts). He will be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court at a later date.

The AG’s Office alleges that from 2015 to 2016, a client from Chelmsford entrusted Lavigne to invest more than $314,000 of his father’s funds in an annuity that would eventually be inherited by the client and his siblings.

The AG’s investigation found that instead, Lavigne diverted the funds to personal and business expenses unrelated to the intended investment. Lavigne allegedly later paid over $56,000 to the client’s heirs under the guise of a purported successor annuity agreement. From this scheme, the AG’s Office alleges Lavigne stole about $258,000 in funds that once belonged to his client’s father and were owed to his heirs.

Additionally, the AG’s Office alleges that in 2017, Lavigne allegedly enticed his client  to invest $60,000 in an entirely separate and fake annuity agreement and then failed to return those funds as requested, bringing the total amount of money he stole to more than $300,000.

Lavigne was disbarred in January 2019 for misuse of client funds unrelated to this investigation.

These charges are allegations and all defendants are innocent until proven guilty.

 

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Edward A. Beagan of AG Healey’s White Collar and Public Integrity Division, with assistance from Financial Investigator Jillian Petruzziello, Victim Witness Advocate Lia Panetta, and Massachusetts State Police assigned to the AG’s Office. 

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Disbarred Plymouth Attorney and Accountant Indicted in Connection With Stealing Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars From Client’s Family

Ex-Gethsemani accountant indicted on $1M theft charge

The former accountant for the Abbey of Gethsemani was indicted Wednesday for allegedly stealing more than $1 million from the monastery, according to Nelson County Commonwealth's Attorney Terry Geoghegan.

A grand jury returned an indictment accusing John E. Hutchins and his wife Carrie of 87 counts of theft – 40 of them for allegedly taking over $10,000.

The money was allegedly siphoned from the abbey's mail order business from 2008 through February.

The indictment does not mention Hutchins' claims that he was fired for disclosing alleged sexual misconduct at the monastery, but it says the thefts began long before the misconduct he has cited.
The abbey's lawyer, Kevin Ford, said this week that were was no connection between the accusations against Hutchins and information he presented to the abbey's leaders.

Arraignment was set for May 26, according to Geoghegan, who said the couple's lawyer, Luke Morgan, has promised his clients will surrender that day in court.

Hutchins and his wife also were charged with 87 counts of unlawful access to a computer.
The indictment says that the 47 thefts were between $500 and $10,000 and the balance over that amount.

The total amount allegedly stolen was $1,060,000.

The monks became suspicious after examining one check for $20,000, and Hutchins was suspended with pay Feb. 17.

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Ex-Gethsemani accountant indicted on $1M theft charge