Tacoma man sentenced to 3 years for stealing $200K in retirement funds from commercial painter

SEATTLE - A Tacoma man who stole more than $200,000 of retirement funds from a commercial painter was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), 52-year-old Erik A. Read, who was working as a third party administrator for union health and welfare and pension plans, stole money from a union member’s account between April 2018 and May 2019.

Read was indicted in April 2022, and pleaded guilty in March 2023.

"Mr. Read used his specialized knowledge to steal the money a commercial painter had paid into his pension plan, hoping his theft would go undetected," said Acting U.S. Attorney Gorman. "Read’s conduct was a highly detailed scheme involving forged records, fake IDs, and lies to colleagues."

According to records filed in the case, between 2018 and 2019, Read falsified records, forged signatures and doctored a driver’s license to make it appear that the victim wanted his funds withdrawn from the fund to pay for medical treatment for terminal illness.

The DOJ says Read also told his coworkers that he was going to hand-deliver the checks to the victim and his family. Instead, he deposited them into his own bank account – even while he was already earning $150,000 a year.

Read has agreed to pay $294,251 to the victim pension plans or their insurers.

Prosecutors wrote to the court that in addition to the financial impacts of Read’s crimes, they brought a great deal of stress to the victim and his own coworkers.

"The impacts include the stress on (one victim) upon learning his retirement had been stolen and his efforts to recoup it," said prosecutor Brian Wynne. "The impacts also include the stress experienced by Read’s colleagues who unwittingly helped Read carry out the fraud and the stress and managerial impacts on the trusts whose plans Read administered."

The DOJ says the case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor.

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