Broker sentenced for embezzlement

ST. LOUIS -- A suburban St. Louis investment broker was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in prison for embezzling more than $4 million from an employee benefit plan and other investors.

Arthur G. Stevenson III, 42, of Eureka, Mo., was also ordered to pay back all of the money. U.S. Attorney Ray Gruender said more than 50 investors were victimized. Stevenson pleaded guilty in June to one count each of mail fraud and embezzling from an employee benefit plan, both felonies.

"It is sad that, once again, many hardworking people have lost their life savings because of the greed of one person," Gruender said.

From January 1996 through March, Stevenson operated financial planning, investment and insurance businesses known as Stevenson Financial Group LLC, SFG Benefit Consultants Inc. and ZSI Financial Network LLC.

Gruender said Stevenson told potential customers that he would place their money in safe investments such as annuities and utility companies.

In his guilty plea, Stevenson said he regularly mailed false investment status statements to clients, and that he knew some clients had invested their life savings.

Among the victims was Tri-Rinse Inc., a St. Louis-based environmental cleanup company that had established a 401-K employee profit sharing plan through Stevenson. Company officials have said they lost $472,824.

The charges against Stevenson came after allegations made by Annie Stika of St. Louis. She told authorities that Stevenson had handled her 401-K plan in late 2000 and told her he invested about $50,000 in an annuity with AmerUS Life, of Des Moines, Iowa. She said she learned later that AmerUS knew nothing of such a transaction.