Bad Boys of Bankruptcy: Episode 3: From the Courthouse to the Big House: Bruce Matson

In this episode, Judge Elizabeth Gunn speaks with Kristen E. Burgers, partner at Hirschler Law, on how a bankruptcy trustee almost got away with millions . . . and how he got caught. Bankruptcy trustees hold a unique position of public and judicial confidence, being charged with the honest marshaling and accounting of debtors’ assets. In this episode, we explore what happens when a trustee violates that confidence by misappropriating funds and weaving a web of lies to cover his tracks. Bruce Matson was a renowned member of the Virginia bankruptcy community, often assigned some of the largest – and most complex – bankruptcy and receivership cases in the region. Yet when he took the helm of LandAmerica Financial Group, a series of seemingly innocuous anomalies led to the discovery of millions of dollars in wrongfully siphoned funds.