Man indicted for allegedly embezzling $5.7 million in Centre County

A pension fund at a Centre County company was drained, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

The man behind the alleged embezzlement has been indicted on several charges.

John Sherman Jumper, 52, was indicted April 12, 2018, by a federal grand jury, which concluded that he embezzled $5.7 million from the pension benefit plan for employees of Snowshoe Refractories, a fire brick manufacturer in Centre County. The pension fund included 129 active and retired employees, and he could be sentenced for up to 65 years in prison if convicted.

Jumper, a securities broker based in Tennessee, "forged signatures on fraudulent documents that purportedly authorized him to transfer funds from the pension plan on three separate occasions between March 2015 through April 2016," according to the indictment. He also allegedly used the money to make loans and investments for the purchases of four businesses and to pay off $1.2 million in personal loan and legal fees.

Jumper received a personal interest in the businesses purchased, according to the indictment, which also said his securities company received more than $1 million in the sale of one of the companies.

He was indicted on four counts of wire fraud, three counts of embezzlement from an employee pension benefit plan and five counts of false statements and concealment of facts in pension benefit plan records.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This story was originally published April 17, 2018 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Man indicted for allegedly embezzling $5.7 million in Centre County."