Man is sentenced in investment scam

October 18, 2008

A Georgia man who pleaded guilty in July to running an Internet investment scam out of his Boston apartment was sentenced in US District Court yesterday to three years in prison followed by three years' supervised release, the FBI said. Michael Patrick Luckett, 37, of Gainesville, Ga., admitted to fraudulently luring people to invest in "certificates," promising a guaranteed rate of return after nine months. But instead, Luckett pocketed the money, authorities said. In addition to prison time, Luckett was ordered to pay almost $100,000 in restitution to his victims. Authorities say Luckett duped about 15 people around the country, persuading them to send him more than $450,000 for investment in the fake "Transnational Fund."

Faculty members at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are criticizing Chancellor Robert C. Holub's decision to freeze hiring and cut spending by $12 million in response to reduced state subsidies, contending he should instead tap reserves to offset the lost revenue. The university's main faculty union, the Massachusetts Society of Professors, said the university should use money set aside for future building projects to avoid cuts to academic departments. The fund has approximately $200 million and last year earned $9 million in interest, the union said.

A Weymouth man pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he wounded his neighbor while target shooting in his backyard, a spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney's office said. John C. Murphy III, 19, is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and other counts, said David Traub. Deborah O'Neill, 50, was struck in the arm by a .22-caliber bullet Thursday. She was taken to the South Shore Hospital in Weymouth and had surgery last night to repair a shattered elbow, Johnson said. Murphy is a member of the Coast Guard stationed in Jonesport, Maine, Coast Guard Chief Rob Resendes said. A neighbor, Tina Nelson, said that Murphy also is an Eagle Scout and that he had returned home for his birthday this weekend. "You couldn't ask for a better neighbor or a better kid," Nelson said.

A 61-year-old disabled man has won a court skirmish in his battle to get sidewalks plowed so he can navigate his scooter around town in winter. William Tinker of Northfield argued he has to travel in the breakdown lane when Tilton doesn't plow the sidewalk over Interstate 93 at Exit 20. The state Supreme Court recently ruled that federal guidelines prohibit closing walkways to avoid maintenance obligations and sent the case back to the lower court. (AP)

Upheaval in the economy is causing a larger hole in the New Hampshire state budget. New estimates predict revenue for fiscal year 2009 will fall $250 million short of original expectations, $50 million worse than Governor John Lynch estimated two weeks ago. Linda Hodgdon, administrative services commissioner, said yesterday the uncertain economy is to blame, especially the inability of businesses to get credit. Business taxes are the state's largest source of general revenue. (AP)

A man was arrested yesterday on charges he helped destroy evidence for the former stepfather of a 12-year-old Vermont girl who was abducted and killed. The arrest of Kevin D. Grosenheider, 58, of San Antonio, was the latest development in the case of Brooke Bennett. Authorities said Brooke was to be forced into a child sex ring by her uncle, Michael Jacques, 42, of Vermont on the day of her disappearance in June. Her body was found in a shallow grave days later. Brooke's uncle has been charged in her kidnapping. According to an affidavit obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, Brooke's former stepfather, Raymond Gagnon, asked Grosenheider to throw away a safe with evidence that implicated Gagnon and someone else. (AP)