FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
BRENDON KEITH RETZ PLEADS GUILTY IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Missoula on June 30, 2008, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch, BRENDON KEITH RETZ, a 39-year-old resident of Whitefish, pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. Sentencing is set for November 6, 2008. He is currently released on special conditions.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
In July of 2000, Donald G. Abbey purchased Shelter Island located in Flathead Lake. After the purchase, the realtor introduced Abbey to RETZ, the general contractor and owner of Timberland Construction Incorporated (TCI).
In approximately June of 2001, Abbey and RETZ became business partners, forming Timberland Construction LLC (TCLLC). The partnership agreement governed TCLLC's construction of Abbey's Shelter Island Project.
In November of 2002, Abbey became concerned about distributions being made by TCLLC and asked RETZ for financial documentation reflecting justification for these distributions. Uncomfortable with RETZ'S responses to his requests and his failure to provide financial justification, Abbey hired an accounting firm to conduct a review.
As a result of the accounting firm's review, Abbey elected to terminate his partnership with RETZ in August of 2003. Abbey stopped depositing monies into the various financial institutions which held accounts to finance TCLLC projects. Since Abbey was no longer providing cash flow or a paycheck to RETZ, RETZ became financially constrained. RETZ decided to raise money through various credit cards.
RETZ'S parents owned and operated the North Forty Resort at Columbia Falls. During September of 2003, RETZ swiped his American Express and Bank of America credit cards through the North Forty Resort merchant credit machine five times, each time falsely representing that a customer was purchasing lodging. By making these false statements to the credit card company, RETZ fraudulently obtained a total of $197,000.
These amounts, less fees, were electronically transmitted and deposited into the North Forty Resort's bank account at Glacier Bank of Whitefish. RETZ then laundered the proceeds from the above financial transactions by depositing the money into his personal bank accounts.
RETZ faces possible penalties of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and 3 years supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kris A. McLean prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service.
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A copy of the Offer of Proof can be obtained by contacting Sally Frank at (406) 247-4638.
