PAW PAW, Mich. — A former Paw Paw insurance agent has been sentenced to 36 months’ probation – with six months under house arrest – and ordered to pay restitution for embezzling between $50,000 and $100,000 from an elderly client, according to a news release Tuesday.
Brian Lietzau, 60, appeared before Judge Kathleen M. Brickley in Van Buren County Circuit Court.
His sentencing follows a plea deal he entered in February, in which he pleaded no contest to one count of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult, $50,000 or more but less than $100,000.
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Lietzau will be responsible for paying restitution of about $70,000 to the estate of the victim, who is now dead.
He has also surrendered his license to practice insurance.
The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services initially investigated Lietzau’s actions and referred the case to the attorney general’s office.
“We have a duty to protect those who are most vulnerable in our state and to hold the bad actors who seek to take advantage of them accountable,” Nessel said.
Lietzau is the former owner of Farm Bureau-Lietzau Insurance.
Between November 2012-13, he served as fiduciary and power of attorney for the elderly victim, during which time he converted her funds to his own personal use.
These transfers happened both while the victim was in the hospital and after she had died.
