United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger today announced the sentencing of ROGER HERMAN GOETZ, JR., 59, to 54 months in federal prison for defrauding his clients of nearly $1.6 million. GOETZ, JR., who pleaded guilty on January 20, 2015, to two counts of wire fraud, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minn., by U.S. District Judge Richard H. Kyle.

“This defendant used his position as a certified public accountant to exploit his most vulnerable clients,” said U.S. Attorney Luger. “Minnesotans trust financial professionals to protect us from unexpected loss. Roger Goetz, Jr., abused that trust for his own financial gain.”

According to his guilty plea and documents filed in court, GOETZ has been a certified public accountant since 1980. He was previously licensed in the State of Minnesota. From at least December 2009 until at least February 2013, the defendant repeatedly lied to his tax preparation clients to steal their money.

According to his guilty plea and documents filed in court, in 2009, GOETZ was hired to file estate taxes for R.W.’s deceased parents. R.W. wired $115,000 to the defendant to pay the estimated state tax. GOETZ instead stole the money, a fact that R.W. didn’t discover for two years. When confronted by R.W., GOETZ provided him with fraudulent documents in an attempt to cover up the fact that GOETZ failed to pay the taxes on behalf of R.W. The victim ultimately was forced to use his daughter’s college fund to pay the outstanding taxes and penalties.

According to his guilty plea and documents filed in court, in January 2012, about one month after R.W. confronted GOETZ about the unpaid taxes, GOETZ stole another $170,000 from a different tax preparation client. T.B. hired GOETZ to prepare estate tax returns for his deceased parents and GOETZ again stole the funds. When T.B. confronted GOETZ about one-year later, GOETZ gave T.B. a check to cover the penalties, but the check bounced.

According to his guilty plea and documents filed in court, GOETZ repeatedly used stolen money from his clients for his own business, Core Wafer Systems (CWS). In addition to the money from R.W. and T.B., Goetz lied to at least nine investors about purported investments in CWS and in an assisted living facility in New Ulm, Minn. Instead of using their purported investments for CWS or the assisted living facility, GOETZ transferred money to accounts not connected either purported investment and used it for unrelated purposes, such as paying overdue bills.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Waseca Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly A. Svendsen prosecuted the case.

Defendant Information:

ROGER HERMAN GOETZ, JR., 59
Waseca, Minn.

Convicted:

• Wire Fraud, 2 counts

Sentenced:

• 54 months in prison
• Three years’ supervised release
• $1,599,857.77 in restitution