Insurance Felon Plans to Play Poker and Repay Victims
Samuel McMaster Jr, an ex insurance and securities agent and a professional poker player, was recently apprehended on 26 counts of felonies in the state of New Mexico. McMaster stands to face a maximum of 12 years on prison for charges of fraud, selling unregistered security while he was an unlicensed broker-dealer.
His sentence is pending for May 2011, giving McMaster almost 6 months to acquire the money and pay his victims back. The court is allowing the convicted felon to travel in the US and play poker in an effort to win the money for his 20 or more victims.
In this strange case of irony, McMaster who apparently liked to play poker with other people money will now have no choice but to play poker with his own funds and earn that same money back or face a sentence of 12 years. A 12 year sentence may almost end up a life sentence for McMaster who is currently 59 years old, leaving his victims with justice but no money. This may be why the court has allowed the felon to play poker and win back the money.
McMaster who had worked with the Santa Fe Financial Group, has stolen almost half a million dollars from the firm’s clients to fund his poker games. According to Phyllis H. Bowman, the lead Prosecutor “the financial records showed a lot of withdrawals from ATM machines at different casinos and we have lots of evidence to show he likes to play poker.”
McMaster has made a lot of money at the tables over the years, made an unusual plea to the court stating that he would pay $7,500 per month in restitution to those clients he had wronged. John Rhinehart, who is McMaster’s lawyer, came up with this deal which allows the felon to play poker tournaments and cash games in the US, but not get involved in the security industry.
“We do have the unusual case here where we are agreeing to delay sentencing for a period of time to allow Mr. McMaster to set a track record as to whether or not he can pay back $400,000 in restitution,” said Bowman.
