Frederic Matson was a financier, investment advisor, and con artist whose wife murdered a news reporter who was about to uncover his scam.
History[]
Matson was a well-respected financier who ran his own investment firm. Among his clients were Colombian gangster Livan Santana and Channel 8 news anchorwoman Sue Martin. Unbeknownst to anyone but Matson and his wife Irene, the entire business was a large Ponzi scheme in which he paid new investors with money from previous clients. At some point, Vince Decker, an employee of Matson's firm, decided to leak the press about the fraud and contacted Martin by email. However, Martin's computer was affected by a device planted by fellow anchorman Joe Delaney, who was spying on her, and she never received the mail. Decker then turned to disgraced news reporter Dawn Prescott. However, Decker was murdered in his home by a hitman hired by Livan Santana, who already knew about the fraud and had an interest in keeping it functioning.
Eventually, Prescott told Delaney about Decker's leak, at which point the latter, wanting to hold up his career, informed Matson, a personal friend of his. When Irene found out about Prescott, she decided to try and convince her to remain silent about the fraud, offering her money, but she refused. Ultimately, Irene shot Prescott in the head, killing her. Later, Matson Investments collapsed under the weight of the 2008 economic crisis. Matson decided to turn himself in to Detectives Lupo and Bernard and confess to his deeds. Not wanting to implicate his wife in Prescott's murder, he gave false leads to EADA Cutter to make it look like Prescott was killed by Santana, just like Decker. In the end, as a means to save her husband from the consequences of testifying against Santana, Irene confessed to Prescott's murder. Both were tried and imprisoned for their respective crimes. (L&O: "Anchors Away")