Elkhorn City Attorney Sentenced to 41 Months for Bank Fraud and Filing False Tax Returns

PIKEVILLE, Ky.— An Elkhorn City, Ky., attorney, Timothy Belcher, 56, was sentenced on Tuesday, to 41 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $817,000 in restitution, by U.S. District Judge Robert Wier, for bank fraud and false statements on a tax return.  

According to Belcher’s plea agreement, he was a licensed attorney practicing in Pike County, who agreed to represent a client and her minor daughter in a wrongful death lawsuit.  In 2004, a settlement was reached in the lawsuit, where half of the settlement would be distributed to the victim and the other half would be distributed among the three children.  The funds were placed into an escrow account for the children.

Belcher admitted that, from July 2012 to December 2018, he transferred money from that escrow account to his law practice and used those funds for his personal and business expenses. Also, in his plea agreement, Belcher admitted that he knowingly failed to report the money he embezzled from the settlement account on his taxes.  

Belcher pleaded guilty in July 2021.  

Under federal law, Belcher must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence.  Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for five years.

Carlton S. Shier, IV, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Louisville Field Office; and Bryant Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, IRS – Criminal Investigation, jointly announced the indictment.

The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.  The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Mattingly Williams.

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