Matthew Mulder took orders his company, WeCan Brewing Systems, couldn’t fulfill, strung along customers, feds say.
The owner of a Bend company that made equipment for microbreweries was sentenced to two years in federal prison this week for scamming dozens of customers before the pandemic.
Matthew Mulder, 52, founded WeCan Brewing Systems in Bend in 2014. The company built custom microbrewery systems, keg washers and other industrial brewing products. But within two years, it fell behind on orders, according to prosecutors with the Oregon district of the U.S. Attorney General.
Mulder appeared in a Eugene courthouse earlier this month to be sentenced on seven counts of wire and fraud. He came to court having pleaded guilty in April to three counts of mail fraud and four of wire fraud. Judge Michael McShane sentenced him to 21 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervision.
The Oregonian quotes McShane telling Mulder his actions had devastated his victims.
“People get into business all the time and it collapses because of bad decisions. This became criminal the minute you just started lying to everybody about the delivery of equipment that was never going to come.”
McShane allowed Mulder to remain out of custody until April, when he must surrender to authorities to begin his prison sentence. Mulder’s wife is undergoing chemotherapy, according to The Oregonian.
From around 2016 to 2018, Mulder took far more orders than his business could fulfill, strung along customers with false promises and even texted them photos of nearly-completed work. Mulder would falsely state projects were on schedule or near completion and send customers fake invoices for shipping costs, which many paid. Few ever received anything from Mulder following those final shipping payments, according to the Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin W. Bruce.
Mulder stopped responding to inquiries and many customers told investigators their calls to him went straight to voicemail. One customer wrote Mulder a $7,500 check to buy a keg washer that Mulder said would be ready in four to six weeks. The customer never got the keg washer and didn’t see the money again.
Most of Mulder’s victims were small businesses, some of which had to close or enter bankruptcy as a result of his theft, according to Bruce. A letter from an Indiana brewery owner was read in court, stating the business had to delay its opening and take out a loan he and others are still repaying. Another victim told the courtroom he dug into family savings and ultimately had to sell his company.
“The wreckage that Mr. Mulder caused because of this fraud was devastating,” Bruce said in court. “These are small businesses that were … scraping money together to build something for their families and their futures.”
Mulder used the ill-gotten funds for personal expenses and to pay off loans and suppliers. In total, Mulder defrauded 23 people and he was ordered to repay his victims $887,116.
The case was investigated by the Bend Police Department and the FBI. A federal grand jury approved the charges against Mulder in February 2020.
Mulder’s attorney urged probation because it allowed his client to work to repay his victims and care for his wife, according to The O. Mulder came to business from the technical side, as a builder of brewing supplies, and only took over financial matters when his business partner left, according to Mulder’s attorney, Ryan T. O’Connor.
He soon got “overwhelmed,” O’Connor said.
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