A Hancock man has been sentenced to serve three years in prison for embezzling $225,000 from a former U.S. Senate candidate.
Matthew T. McDonald, 45, was found guilty of theft last month after a two-day jury trial in Ellsworth.
McDonald worked for Max Linn on Linn’s two U.S. Senate campaigns in Maine before Linn died in 2021 at his home in Bar Harbor. Before he died, Linn asked McDonald to invest the funds in cryptocurrency on his behalf.
McDonald never did, though, and when Linn asked for it back, McDonald accused Linn of pointing a gun at him in a dispute over the money and went to court to seek a restraining order against the former Senate candidate. McDonald claimed that Linn instead wanted to use the funds to buy drugs from Indonesia that were being touted as COVID-19 cures, but Linn denied the accusations.
McDonald later told police he liquidated the cryptocurrency by investing it in the futures market, where it promptly was lost, according to court documents.
On Wednesday, McDonald was sentenced to seven years in prison with all but three years suspended, meaning he will have to serve at least three years behind bars. He also was ordered to serve three years of probation upon his release and could be sent back to prison if he violates probation during his term.
McDonald also was ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to Linn’s estate.
He also is facing scrutiny in federal court over the theft. Linn’s widow and his estate filed suit against McDonald in U.S. District Court in Bangor in August 2023, seeking to recover at least some of the money from McDonald and writing in their complaint that the loss of the funds “ultimately contributed to [Linn’s] untimely death.”
Last year, a federal judge denied a motion by McDonald to dismiss the federal complaint and later found him in default and ruled in favor of Linn’s widow and estate, ordering McDonald to repay the funds.