A former Oregon certified public accountant who stole about US$4.5 million from his clients, including Olympic snowboarder Daniel Kass, to support his “Playboy” lifestyle and marijuana business has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.
Witnesses told a federal judge on Thursday that they were duped by Nathan Wheeler’s personable manner only to learn that he had bilked their life savings, the Oregonian reported.
Prosecutors say he stole more than US$900,000 from Kass and misappropriated the trust fund of two porn shop heirs.
He also bought his fiancee an engagement ring using the investments of a retired law enforcement officer, prosecutors said.
“I was working for the American dream, but that dream became a nightmare when I met Nathan Wheeler,” said Kass, who won silver medals in the halfpipe in the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics.
Kass had started a sports apparel business in Portland in 2001, but said he could no longer support it and had to close. The 37-year-old now lives with his mother in California “all because of Nathan Wheeler.”
US District Judge Karin Immergut said that Wheeler displayed an “utter disregard for others,” using lies to lure people who trusted him with their retirement savings and their future.
Wheeler, 43, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and attempted tax evasion last year.
In court, he agreed with a lot of the testimony against him, saying he cheated them to fund his lifestyle of “nightlife, booze, drugs and money.”
He said he has been in counseling, got remarried and is focused on his family.
“From 2010 through 2015, my word was garbage,” Wheeler said. “I’ll be sorry and ashamed for the rest of my life.”
The investigation began when the Oregon Liquor Control Commission looked into Wheeler’s medical marijuana growing enterprise, which was much larger than the state’s medical marijuana program allowed.
Wheeler received US$143,390 from out of state for illegal distribution of marijuana, prosecutors said.
He persuaded clients of his accounting firm Bridge City Advisors to invest in real estate, promising a high rate of return. Often within hours of his clients wiring him money, he would divert it for his own use or to support his pot business, they said.
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