Lighter sentence urged in dog-business scam

Defense’s memo cites bipolar disorder

A Rogers man who pleaded guilty earlier this year in a dog business investment scheme should get a break on his sentence when he goes to federal court later this month because he suffers from bipolar disorder, his attorney is arguing.

The attorney for 59-yearold Darrell Rosen, a former Procter & Gamble executive, asked U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks to consider a sentence of 24 months in prison for Rosen rather than the range of 68-73 months advised under federal sentencing guidelines.

Rosen, who is free on bond, is to be sentenced July 16 after pleading guilty in January to charges of money laundering and filing a false tax return.

Assistant federal public defender Jack Schisler, in a sentencing memorandum filed in Fayetteville on Monday, blamed Rosen’s turn to crime on pressures from sudden downturns in his life that triggered his depression. Rosen’s longtime marriage ended, his father became seriously ill and his 27-year career with Proctor & Gamble ended with him being forced into early retirement.

“A law-abiding citizen for most of his life, the effects of untreated bipolar disorder as well as upheavals in his personal life combined to impair his judgment and cloud his reasoning, ultimately sending him down a path toward criminal acts, humiliation and shame,” Schisler wrote.

Rosen was not asking Brooks to excuse his crimes, Schisler wrote, but to weigh the good he has done in his life against the bad and consider the bad things “were not totally of his own making.”

In the government’s sentencing memorandum to Brooks, also filed Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brice White wrote that the government did not believe a departure from the guideline sentence range of 68-73 months for mental health reasons was appropriate.

The government and Rosen have agreed so far on the federal guideline range of $550,000 to $1.5 million as the amount for which Rosen is responsible for stealing from his investors, according to Rosen’s plea agreement. The actual amount he will have to repay will be determined and announced at sentencing.

Rosen was charged in March 2017 in a seven-count indictment with wire fraud and money laundering. The next month, the government added five more charges of filing a false tax return and making a false bankruptcy declaration.

The indictments said that from October 2010 through August 2014 Rosen enticed people to invest in dog businesses he had, claiming he was training dogs to sell to the government and private companies. He had experience training hunting dogs in a business called Mountain Creek Kennels and had a dog care business named Rover Oaks.

The indictment said Rosen claimed to have a contract with the CIA, for which he produced false documentation, to supply dogs. He promised investors they would reap rich returns on their investments.

“‘U will be a filthy rich man,’” the indictment quoted from one of Rosen’s investment pitches.