By TRISTAN SCOTT, Flathead Beacon
KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — With a view to persuade the rich Whitefish philanthropist Michael Goguen to fund bogus covert navy operations throughout the globe, Matthew A. Marshall spun one elaborate deception after one other whereas portraying himself as a high-ranking intelligence official on a hero’s campaign to quash terrorism, even going as far as to get a tattoo of the U.S. Marine Corps “Pressure Recon” insignia and ship his unsuspecting sufferer a string of prayer beads he claimed to have faraway from the physique of a lifeless terrorist, a flourish engineered “so as to add coloration to his claimed CIA affiliation,” in line with federal prosecutors.
None of it was true, however the 51-year-old Marshall grew extra duplicitous as his fictions unraveled, contriving a system during which he used a smartphone app referred to as “Burner” to ship himself emails and textual content messages purportedly from the famed counterterrorism official Cofer Black, an effort to prop up his fictions and hold the cash flowing into his private checking account. That cash arrived within the type of wire transfers from Goguen, whose funds to Marshall and his securities agency Amyntor Group totaled $2.35 million.
On Thursday in U.S. District Courtroom in Missoula, with Donald W. Molloy presiding over the three-hour listening to, Marshall was sentenced to 6 years in federal jail and three years of supervised launch. Molloy additionally ordered Marshall to pay restitution within the quantity of $3,254,327, together with the $2.35 million to Goguen in addition to almost $900,000 to the Inside Income Service for tax evasion. In delivering the sentence for 3 counts wire fraud, cash laundering and tax evasion, Molloy accepted a plea settlement within the case and dismissed eight different counts.
The 72-month jail sentence hews carefully to what prosecutors requested in a case that has spanned years, relationship again to April 2013, and it represents a considerably longer interval of incarceration than the 24 months requested by Marshall’s non-public protection lawyer, Justin Ok. Gelfand of the St. Louis agency Margulis Gelfand, LLC, who implored the decide to “mood the punishment with mercy.”
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However prosecutors and Goguen himself characterised the depths of Marshall’s deception as “disturbing,” and with seemingly no finish to the lies he was prepared to fabricate.
“The Courtroom is properly conscious of the flowery lies Marshall informed about serving as a Pressure Recon Marine, together with claims he was awarded each a Silver Star and a Bronze Star, which he now acknowledges had been totally false,” in line with Assistant U.S. Lawyer Tim Racicot. “It isn’t clear whether or not he intends to cling to the lies about working for the CIA, although the report is replete with proof … that he was by no means related to that company in any capability.”
In response to prosecutors, Marshall obtained an “Different Than Honorable” discharge from the Marine Corps Reserve in November 1999 after accumulating 82 absences from inactive obligation coaching.
Certainly, Marshall’s obvious lack of respect for the legislation and for the sanctity of the navy appeared to have an affect on Molloy’s sentencing disposition, a lot of which is set by rigid federal sentencing pointers, which attorneys on each side spent the primary hour of the listening to debating. In response to Molloy, the facade of lies that Marshall constructed surrounding his navy and authorities bonafides was half and parcel to the overarching scheme.
“It appears to me that he will get nowhere with this fraud with out the connection to the federal government,” Molloy stated.
Furthermore, the decide stated Marshall violated a longtime line of belief he developed over the course of years with Goguen, working for him and his household.
“I suppose what I can’t wrap my head round is how does a billionaire get sucked into this with out the fraud having some excessive stage of sophistication?” Molloy stated in response to prosecutors’ request for an abuse-of-trust enhancement to Marshall’s base offense stage. “You simply can’t get individuals to provide you $2.5 million with out some stage of sophistication.”
In response to federal investigators, Marshall’s schemes dated again a long time, starting when he deceived the Indiana State Police to be able to get employed in 1996, failing to reveal he had resigned from one other police division in Marion, Indiana after he was named as a suspect in a residential housebreaking there. He lied once more in 1998, courtroom paperwork state, when “he parlayed his faux navy service right into a coveted place on the state police Emergency Response Staff,” resigning from the Indiana State Police when “his duplicity was found.”
And when Goguen grew suspicious and the stress mounted on Marshall, who Goguen employed in 2013 to run safety for his household, the defendant claimed he had a life-threatening medical situation, utilizing the Burner app to ship himself fabricated textual content messages allegedly from neurologists on the Mayo Clinic.
“Marshall used the identical Burner app to ship himself faux messages from alleged CIA colleagues that basically claimed the CIA operative within the film ‘Sicario 2’ was based mostly on him,” in line with federal prosecutors, who first unveiled their grand jury indictment in opposition to Marshall in July 2020.
Showing for the sentencing in a darkish swimsuit and tie, his head clean-shaven, Marshall apologized for his misdeeds and the “collateral impact it has had on many individuals.”
“I’m a person and I’ll fall on my sword, which I make no hesitation in doing,” stated Marshall.
However Molloy was unmoved, as a substitute prescribing a punishment that falls on the excessive finish of the federal sentencing pointers. The decide, himself a veteran, described the defendant’s vary of deceit as disturbing, notably because the federal investigation revealed that he not solely lied extensively about his navy background, but in addition about comparatively inconsequential issues, reminiscent of having earned a soccer scholarship to a school he by no means attended.
“Mr. Marshall describes himself as somebody who’s respectful of the legislation, however if you drill down into it he doesn’t actually have a respect for the legislation apart from to determine what the margin is after which get as near the sting as doable with out being caught,” Molloy stated earlier than imposing the sentence, permitting Marshall to self-surrender to federal jail officers as soon as he’s assigned to a facility.
“This isn’t a superficial one-off occasion of somebody who misrepresented himself,” Molloy stated. “That is somebody who engineered an elaborate Walter Mitty world, which he lives in however which is all predicated on lies about off-the-books navy operations and misrepresentations about himself.”
Molloy conceded that Marshall seems to be a caring father, with an 18-year-old daughter he raised along with his spouse, in addition to two “very younger” daughters from one other relationship. Each of the ladies wrote letters of help for Marshall. Nevertheless, prosecutors stated these qualities weren’t sufficient to absolve him of “the lengths he went to to cowl up his fraud, which knew no finish.”
In response to Racicot, these lengths are “additional exemplified by his efforts to control legislation enforcement officers,” together with leveraging his friendship with the previous Whitefish Police Chief to be able to actual revenge on Goguen, however solely after Marshall’s one-time benefactor caught wind of the scheme and reported him to the FBI.
“He sidled as much as the police chief in Whitefish, cultivating a friendship that he later used to his profit each time doable,” Racicot wrote in a sentencing memorandum to Molloy.
Because it relates particularly to this case, and to Marshall’s makes an attempt to “undermine the sufferer’s credibility at any price,” Racicot stated Marshall labored with the chief to arrange one other officer for alleged bribery for accepting Goguen’s invitation to take part in a guided looking journey exterior Montana.
Marshall and the chief exchanged strategic textual content messages over the course of two months and the officer they focused finally resigned. Earlier than the resignation, nonetheless, Marshall texted the chief that he was anxious “in the event you spill the beans to (officer) earlier than the looking journey he gained’t go. For what it’s price I’d sluggish roll it a bit and never do something to spook him earlier than the journey.”
Later, Marshall requested the chief: “Are you going to provide me a break and take a deep breath and let (the officer) go on this journey Friday? I’d give you a yr of free golf however that is likely to be bribery. In case you let him go that’s going to assist the general trigger.”
The “general trigger,” Racicot stated, was “to denigrate the sufferer from a number of angles within the hopes Marshall’s fraudulent conduct went uninvestigated.”
“Marshall’s willingness to capitalize on a relationship with the pinnacle of a legislation enforcement company to be able to actual revenge in opposition to the sufferer — and finish one other officer’s profession within the course of – is an astounding instance of his lack of respect for the legislation,” the prosecutor stated.
The indictment outlines a scheme starting in April 2013 during which Marshall fraudulently satisfied Goguen, referred to in paperwork as a businessman and employer to Marshall named “John Doe,” that he was an ex-CIA agent and member of an elite Pressure Reconnaissance unit within the U.S. Marine Corps. Marshall informed Goguen he had “engaged in covert missions all over the world” and requested him to fund an “off the books” paramilitary mission in Mexico, in line with a Nov. 4 supply of proof submitted by prosecutors.
Believing Marshall, Goguen agreed and wired him $400,000 on April 25, 2013. Marshall subsequently requested Goguen for cash for 4 different purported missions between October 2013 and March 2016 “based mostly on Marshall’s materials misstatements that he would use the cash for the missions,” in line with the supply of proof.
Goguen stated he “by no means would have given Mr. Marshall a greenback” if he’d recognized the reality, and that his story was so elaborate he couldn’t think about anybody exerting the time and power to assemble it from complete fabric.
“It’s virtually past perception,” Goguen stated. “It was unbelievable to me on the time that somebody would engineer such refined mechanisms to defraud me. That somebody would create false cellphone numbers and seemingly textual content himself for hours simply to keep up the deception.”
As a result of scope of the textured case, its decision on Thursday drew reward from federal investigators and Montana’s U.S. Lawyer Leif Johnson.
“Marshall promoted a fantasy world full of faux missions carried out by fictitious operatives for clandestine businesses in faraway lands for phony functions. It was all faux, however sadly it was paid for with actual cash from an actual sufferer. And the cash by no means went anyplace besides to Marshall’s private accounts,” Johnson stated in a ready assertion. “The lengths to which Marshall went to hold off this fraud can hardly be overstated. He used a cellphone software to ship faux textual content messages; he created false emails; he despatched the sufferer prayer beads collected throughout a faux mission; and he bought a tattoo to falsely signify that he was a member of ‘Pressure Recon,’ and so on. The record goes on. I need to thank Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tim Racicot and Ryan Weldon, Trial Lawyer S. Derek Shugert, Nationwide Safety Division, U.S. Division of Justice, and the federal brokers who poured numerous hours into uncovering this scheme and bringing Marshall to justice,” U.S. Lawyer Johnson added.
“Mr. Marshall devised an elaborate scheme layered in lies to defraud the sufferer,” stated Particular Agent in Cost Dennis Rice of the Salt Lake Metropolis FBI. “Like most fraud circumstances, Mr. Marshall’s motive was merely greed. The FBI’s Salt Lake Metropolis Discipline Workplace want to acknowledge the numerous particular brokers throughout the nation, the intelligence neighborhood, and witnesses, who labored collectively to carry this completed fraudster and manipulator accountable and search justice for the sufferer.”
For Racicot, who firmly opposed any leniency exterior the higher finish of the federal sentencing calculation, the size and velocity of Marshall’s deception leads him to imagine {that a} interval of incarceration is the one solution to forestall the defendant from concocting one other scheme.
“I truly do fear that we’d see Mr. Marshall again in courtroom,” Racicot stated, noting that Marshall’s crimes in Montana occurred after he’d already resigned from two police departments in Indiana, the place he additionally lied about his credentials as a Marine.
“It wasn’t till after he’d gotten caught (in Indiana) that he got here to Montana and bought the Pressure Recon tattoo,” Racicot stated. “He doubled down.”
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