Press Release
Former California State Assemblyman Sentenced To Prison For Money Laundering In Fraud Scheme Involving Bart Coffee Shops
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of California
OAKLAND – Terrence Patrick Goggin was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $685,000 in restitution for money laundering, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Craig D. Fair, and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Daniels. The sentence was handed down by the Honorable James Donato, United States District Judge.
Goggin, 79, of Dunsmuir, California, who is a former California State Assemblyman as well as a California-licensed attorney, pleaded guilty to the federal charge of money laundering on December 4, 2019. According to the plea agreement, Goggin admitted that he was the founder and CEO of Metropolitan Coffee and Concession Company, LLC (MC2). From July 2007 to February 26, 2014, Goggin solicited investor money for MC2 to build Peet’s Coffee retail centers, including two centers to be built at the Civic Center and Balboa Park BART stations. Among other investors in the MC2 projects, a group of four private equity investors invested $585,000 in the Civic Center project in September 2013, and an individual investor invested $100,000 in the Balboa Park project, also in September 2013. Goggin admitted that he falsely represented to those investors that their money would be used to build out those specific future Peet’s Coffee retail centers when, in truth, he planned to use the funds otherwise. He also failed to provide the investors with accurate information about the strained relationship between MC2 and BART and about the state of MC2’s finances.
Goggin further admitted as part of his guilty plea that in September 2013 he diverted and directed his employees to divert nearly all of the $685,000 in investment funds to other bank accounts associated with other business ventures into which the investors had neither agreed nor intended to invest. For one example, on September 12, 2013, the same day MC2 received $585,000 from the private equity investors, Goggin directed the transfer of $15,000 from the MC2 bank account to the business bank account of Aegis Atlantic LLC, a Delaware company of which Goggin was also the CEO. That money was never used for the agreed-upon BART projects and was instead spent for other purposes.
A Superseding Indictment returned by the grand jury on September 13, 2018, charged Goggin with four counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and nine counts of money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1957. Under the plea agreement, Goggin pled guilty to one count of money laundering.
United States District Judge James Donato also sentenced Goggin to a three-year period of supervised release to follow his imprisonment. The defendant is presently out of custody and is ordered to surrender on June 28, 2021, to begin serving his sentence.
Katherine Lloyd-Lovett and Katie Medearis are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Kay Konopaske. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.
Updated February 10, 2021
Topic
Financial Fraud
Component