Billings man sentenced in fraud case

The Daily Inter Lake

A Billings man was sentenced Wednesday on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering that involved a Kalispell victim.

Michael Don Hutton, 59, was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervision.

Hutton was the principal of M.D. Hutton Insurance in Billings.

The FBI, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service, and the Montana State Auditor's Office investigated the case.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said Provident Financial in Kalispell was a victim.

Between September 2002 and May 2004, Hutton submitted 28 premium financing agreements to Provident on behalf of 12 customers to obtain loans, purportedly to pay the customers' insurance premiums, according to court records. He didn't have permission from the customers to do that.

He forged their names on agreements and sent them to Provident.

When Provident sent the loan proceeds to Hutton, he kept them. When it sent the loan proceeds directly to the insurance company to pay the premiums, he kept some or all the premiums paid to him by the customers when the premium was supposed to be paid to the insurance company.

He used some of the loan money and premiums to make payments on the loans to Provident. By the time he was caught, about $80,000 had not been repaid.

He also issued 38 performance and payment bonds on behalf of several insurance companies to S.E. Inc., which paid $160,000 for the bonds.

He didn't notify the insurance companies that it had issued the bonds and kept the premiums he collected.

Besides the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom also ordered Hutton to pay about $186,000 in restitution.