Mother who embezzled $200,000 avoids prison

A Menomonee Falls mother trying to “keep up with the Joneses” when she embezzled more than $200,000 as a chief operating officer was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation, and a year of house arrest — but no prison time.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman called it a close case, with hard feelings that could justify prison, but Jennifer M. Goss was not a threat to the public and it was better she keeps working to repay the victims at least some of their losses.

Goss, 37, routinely wrote checks to herself and her husband, Eric Goss, who also worked for Financial Equipment Co., then altered company software to make it look like the checks were to other payees, like FedEx Freight, according to her plea agreement. She pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May.

Dennis Wick, who founded the nowclosed Germantown company, hired Goss after she’d been fired from another job, became close with her family and planned to pass the company on to her and her husband, according to the government’s sentencing memo.

“It’s one thing to be robbed by a stranger,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Corey. “It’s much worse when it is a friend who does it.”

He said the thefts had “dire” financial and health consequences to Wick, and recommended a 27-month prison term, plus lengthy supervision after release.

“The Wicks earned the right to live comfortably and happily in their golden years; Jennifer Goss took that away from them,” Corey wrote.

The scheme ran from January 2012 until July 2015, when Financial Equipment hired an accounting firm to assess a value of the company ahead of an anticipated sale. The accountants discovered Goss’ embezzlement, and Financial Equipment had to spend another $98,000 on forensic accounting to determine the scope of her crimes

Goss’ attorney, Christopher Donovan, said she did not need prison. She and her husband have two children under 12. She has no prior criminal record, no drug or alcohol issues, a supportive family, and a new job as a manager of a Costco optical department.

Losing the job would jeopardize her continued $700 monthly payments to Financial Equipment, per the terms of a civil suit settlement that calls for Goss and her husband to repay $750,000. The payments are set to increase to $1,000 a month in 2020.

In a sentencing memo, Donovan wrote that therapy has helped Goss gain insight into her crime, which she now realizes was about “keeping up with the Joneses.” Goss said in court Tuesday that “in hindsight, I can’t believe I did this.”

Laureen Wick told the judge that Goss’ “extreme greed and covetousness” drove her actions which have “broken (her husband’s) whole being and soul.” She said after the hearing she planned to publicize Goss’ actions in a newspaper ad.

Corey noted that it was “all the more baffling and inexcusable” that Goss, with a solid background and earning more than $100,000 annually at Financial Equipment, resorted to theft without the kind of underlying gambling or drug problem often tied to embezzlement.

Adelman also seemed puzzled and asked Goss what was going on. She said after she got away with it the first time, it just continued, even though she didn’t need the extra money.

“I just misused the Wicks’ trust,” she said.

Financial Equipment Co. was experiencing financial trouble in 2015 and was forced to close in October of that year. Eleven employees lost their jobs.

The company designed, installed and serviced security equipment such as safes and vaults. It sued the Gosses in Waukesha County Circuit Court in 2016. Right before the couple’s answer was due, they filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

Last year, the company sued the Gosses again in Waukesha County and reached a settlement in April in which a $750,000 non-dischargable judgment was entered against the Gosses.