Former Catholic College CFO sentenced in Lander fraud case

Former Wyoming Catholic College chief financial officer Paul McCown was sentenced Friday to five years and three months in prison and ordered to pay restitution for his elaborate scheme to defraud a federal coronavirus relief program and a New York investment company out of millions of dollars.

Chief U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl sentenced McCown for seven counts of wire fraud, to be served concurrently at a yet-to-be-determined federal facility in Orange County, California. Judge Skavdahl allowed McCown to surrender himself to correctional officers at a date to be determined by a probation officer.

Arguing for a stiffer 78- to 98-month sentence, assistant U.S. Attorney Christyne Martens said that McCown perpetrated the massive fraud — including impersonating bank officers, lying about what he claimed was a booming gin distillery business and falsely claiming to have amassed a vast fortune of more than $750 million — in a “cold, calculated” manner.

“His conduct here is nothing less than devastating to the people around him,” Martens said. “We have an intelligent, motivated person who knew it was wrong, knew it would cause harm and did it anyway.”

Read more: https://wyofile.com/former-catholic-college-cfo-sentenced-in-lander-fraud-case/