BACKER PLEADS GUILTY TO FRAUD, JAILED 14 MONTHS
No answers offered as to why he was gone for 18 months
Former Olympic rower Harold Backer, who disappeared for 18 months before resurfacing in April 2017, has pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud over $5,000 and been sentenced to 14 months in jail.
The fraud charge is related to his work as a mutual fund salesman. He pleaded guilty to defrauding five clients for a total of $161,900 between May 6, 2013, and Oct. 23, 2015.
Backer, 55, hugged two of his children in the courtroom Wednesday before being taken away by sheriffs. He was given credit for a month spent in custody, reducing his sentence to 13 months, and will be on probation for three years.
Backer’s disappearance began on Nov. 3, 2015. He told his wife he was heading to the Galloping Goose Regional Trail to go cycling, but didn’t return home. That was followed by a letter sent by Backer to investment clients saying he was sorry for decisions he made that cost them money.
It remains unclear where Backer spent his time while he was gone, and his disappearance was not mentioned during the hearing. “As you can assume, the answer to that question wasn’t relevant to today’s sentencing hearing and I won’t be answering that,” Joven Narwal, Backer’s lawyer, said outside court.
Narwal said Backer regrets what he has done. “No doubt he’s deeply remorseful,” he said. “To some degree, I think, the finality of this has been somewhat cathartic for him and he’s been looking forward to the opportunity for the criminal proceedings to end.”
Restitution orders have been made for Backer to compensate the following people, whose money was not fully placed in his brokerage account and was used for purposes “not consistent with the intention of the investment,” according to the agreed statement of facts in the case: • Brian and Leslie Carr — $93,000 • Tony Carr (Backer’s high school rowing coach) — $23,500 • Ingrid Vermegen — $37,500 • Heidi Sohm — $7,900
Judge Carmen Rogers said that victim-impact statements indicated the financial losses were “devastating” and that victims “lost faith in their ability to judge others.”
Lawyer Brian McDaniel, representing the Carr family in a separate civil suit, told reporters the case has had a big impact on the rowing community. McDaniel, a national team rower in the 1960s, said the rowing community is a small, well-connected and caring group.
“I assure you that what has happened here today will be distributed amongst the world rowing community, which will follow it with great interest.”
Backer made a name for himself as a rower and related that experience to his legal issues, Narwal said. “As everybody is well aware, Mr. Backer was a worldclass athlete. He was an Olympian three times over. He also rowed for the muchstoried Princeton rowing team,” he said.
“What I’ve learned from Mr. Backer over the time that I’ve represented him is that [rowing is] a close-knit kind of performance and everyone is relying on everyone else.” In that sense, Backer feels he let everyone down, Narwal said. “Obviously, this is much more than simply losing a rowing race, it’s far more significant than that, and he does feel absolute and complete remorse.”
Backer’s loved ones have been affected, Narwal said.
“Certainly there’s collateral consequences to the family, who care very deeply for him, but the family has stood by him throughout this.”
The outcome of the case was fair to Backer, Narwal said. “He is hoping once he pays his debt to society, through his jail sentence, that he’ll make some efforts toward making restitution and full compensation to the people who lost.”