SAN JOSE – Harry Corl, III was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $253,625.50 in restitution to over 30 victim employees and shareholders, announced United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Klaus Placke, Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, San Francisco Regional Office.
Harry Corl, now of Pittsburg, California, was indicted on several wire fraud and money laundering counts by a federal grand jury on November 29, 2018. On September 25, 2023, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349.
According to court filings, from 2008 to 2014, Corl and his estranged wife and co-defendant were executive officers for Nu-Metal Finishing, Inc. They also served as trustees of the company’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan and Trust, or ESOP, which provided retirement benefits and savings to the company’s employees by purchasing and investing company stock for their collective benefit. As trustees, the Corls had a fiduciary duty to competently manage the ESOP’s cash, stock, and assets and act in the best interests of the employee-shareholders. They failed to do so.
As set forth in the government’s sentencing memorandum, from 2011 to 2014, Corl used Nu-Metal’s corporate accounts to pay for numerous personal expenses wholly unrelated to the business of a metal finishing company. For example, Corl used corporate funds to purchase extravagant jewelry from Tiffany & Co. and made lease payments on a Ferrari 599 GTB coupe, listing Nu-Metal Finishing as a lessee. Corl also used corporate funds to lease a Bentley and to purchase outright a Mercedes S63 sedan. The Corls flaunted their luxury car collection on social media.
Furthermore, in May 2014, the Corls arranged a fraudulent sale of Nu-Metal. In all formal written agreements and conversations with all parties involved, the Corls represented themselves as the sole owners of the company, falsely stating that the ESOP had been terminated and was no longer a concern. In reality, the ESOP and another shareholder owned well over 50% of the company’s outstanding stock and were owed their corresponding portion of the proceeds from the company’s sale. However, Corl immediately transferred nearly the entire sale proceeds to his personal accounts and moved to Texas. To date, the employees who participated in the ESOP, all laid off after the sale of the company, have not received any portion of the sale proceeds owed to them. As indicated in the filed victim impact statements, these victims lost expected retirement income, and some have suffered serious financial distress a result.
The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Edward J. Davila, U.S. District Judge, who also sentenced Corl to pay $253,625.50 in restitution, serve a three-year period of supervised release, and pay a $100 special assessment fee. The defendant will begin serving his sentence on June 13, 2024.
Marissa Harris is the Assistant U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case with the assistance of Sahib Kaur. The prosecution is the result of a four-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration.
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