SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 10, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A Spanish Fork man earned another year in prison after three years of continuing to commit crimes while either serving a sentence or awaiting trial on new charges.
U.S. Attorney for Utah Trina Higgins used the word maleficence to describe Matthew Ambrose Baker’s behavior, as in the act of committing harm or evil, of being morally wrong in principle or practice.
To sum up the 49-year-old’s path the last three years gets complicated, as laid out in a Friday press release from Higgins office. .
In layman’s terms, while serving a sentence for health care fraud, he was ripping off a relative in a real estate fraud. And while awaiting trial on that fraud he earned convictions on a weapons offense and violating the terms of his pre-trial release in handling more than $1 million in assets when he was not permitted to dabble in more than $1,500.
He was sentenced to 27 months in prison last year on the real estate shenanigans and order to pay $445,000 in restitution and Friday earned another year in prison for the latest offenses.
“Mr. Baker’s decision to engage in new fraud while serving a custodial sentence for a 2019 fraud case was brazen,” Higgins said.
“His subsequent decision to repeatedly violate his conditions of release and commit new crimes while awaiting trial in the fraud case demonstrates a complete lack of respect for our laws and the court.
“Repeated maleficence will not be tolerated.”
In 2020, Baker was serving a home custodial sentence for the 2019 federal health care fraud conviction, prosecutors said. While serving that sentence, he committed wire fraud in attempting to divert the proceeds of a family member’s real estate transaction to himself.
For which he was convicted in Dec. 2022 at trial and sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay the relative $445,000 in restitution.
He was on pre-trial release before the Dec. 2022 conviction for more than two years, during which he committed new crimes, prosecutors explained, specifically contempt of court for the handling of the $1 million in assets, and possession of armaments by a felon.
In March of 2022, probation officers found him in possession of a box with 40 rounds of .38 caliber bullets hidden in an underwear and sock drawer, the press release said, plus a box of 37 rounds of 9mm ammunition in a duffel bag. Baker was investigated by the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office.
