U Of M Professor Sentenced For Swindling Wife: 'I Beg For Mercy'

MINNEAPOLIS — University of Minnesota professor Massoud Amin was sentenced to four years on probation and four months in the Hennepin County workhouse for his conviction on falsifying his retirement account during his divorce hearing.

In September, a jury convicted Amin of one count of attempted theft by swindle, and two counts of aggravated forgery.

The crimes occurred during his divorce proceedings in Hennepin County Family Court, authorities said.

Amin submitted several documents indicating that his retirement account had $745,012 in it.

His wife was sure that was wrong and testimony indicated that he had tampered with the documents and his actual retirement fund balance was nearly $900,000, according to investigators.

His now ex-wife submitted a victim impact statement which was read for her in court in which she stated that he attempted to defraud her and the court, that he manipulated her so that she began to doubt herself and her memory and she feared for her safety because he purchased 14 guns after the criminal case had begun.

“The level of psychological abuse has negatively impacted my well-being,” she concluded.

When it was his turn to speak, Amin spoke of accompanying his parents on visits to poor villages in his native Iran and then moving to the United States in 1978.

He said it was his ambition to improve the lives of those villagers, and others, by improving electrical power, which led him to becoming an electrical engineer.

“I have been demoted back to where I started,” Amin said. “I am terrified of what might come next. Even before I was convicted, my reputation was severally damaged. I beg for mercy.”

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