A 51-year-old Oconomowoc man has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for carrying out a $2.6 million investment scheme that defrauded 27 victims, including his own parents and a cognitively disabled person.
Edward Matthes, who now resides in Milwaukee, pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in November 2020. On May 20, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Matthes was sentenced to 63 months in prison.
Matthes, who was a prominent member of the Oconomowoc community, solicited family, friends and community members to use his services as an independent broker-dealer for Mutual of Omaha Investor Services Inc.
According to court records, from 2013 to 2019 Matthes persuaded his clients, who were mostly elderly, to invest in fictitious Mutual of Omaha accounts, which he claimed would perform better for them. Instead, Matthes put more than $2.6 million of client funds into his own bank account and used it to pay off his credit cards, mortgage, child support, student loans for his son, home improvements and vacations and spent more than $80,000 at Tiffany & Co.