Former State Assemblyman Goggins Sentenced To Prison For Money Laundering Scheme
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A former state assemblyman was sentenced to over a year in prison and a hefty fine in connection with a money laundering scheme to fund the building of Peet's Coffee shops at San Francisco BART stations, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.
Federal authorities announced Terrence Patrick Goggin was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $685,000 in restitution for money laundering. The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge James Donato.
The 79-year-old Dunsmuir resident Goggin -- a former California State Assemblyman as well as an attorney licensed to practice law in California -- 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). Over the course of nearly seven years starting in July 2007, Goggin solicited money from investors for MC2 to build Peet's Coffee retail centers, including two centers to be built at the Civic Center and Balboa Park BART stations.
According to a Justice Department release, 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. Another individual invested $100,000 in the Balboa Park project that same month.
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. Goggin additionally failed to accurately portray the strained relationship between MC2 and BART and information about the state of MC2's finances.
Goggin had originally been charged with nine counts of money laundering and four counts of wire fraud on Sep. 13, 2018. Under the plea agreement, Goggin pled guilty to one count of money laundering.
The Justice Department release said Judge Donato also sentenced Goggin to a three-year period of supervised release to follow his imprisonment. Goggin is currently out of custody and has been ordered to surrender to authorities on June 28, 2021, to begin serving his sentence.
