Tripoli Shrine leader found guilty of embezzlement
A former leader of Milwaukee’s Tripoli Shrine was found guilty Monday of embezzling about $200,000 from the fraternal and charitable organization, money he claimed was a loan and reimbursements for circus expenses.
Michael Geiger, 50, of Richfield, was charged in 2015 with stealing the money in 2009 when he was potentate of the group, and 2010, when he remained involved as a volunteer with the group.
He faces up to five years in prison and five years of extended supervision, plus a potential $25,000 fine, at his sentencing March 26. Geiger, who had been free on bail during his trial, was taken into custody after the guilty verdict was returned about 1:30 p.m. Monday. The jury began deliberations Friday afternoon, were sent home for the weekend and returned Monday morning.
Tripoli Shrine Center, 3000 W. Wisconsin Ave., features dramatic Taj Mahal-inspired architecture. Its members, called the nobility, are best known for staging the Shrine Circus every February, which raises money for charities, primarily the nationwide network of Shriners Children’s Hospitals. The potentate is the group’s highest officer.
Geiger’s attorney, Bradley Bloch, argued to jurors in his closing argument Friday that Geiger oversaw a transformational year for the local temple as potentate, and that bylaws in place at the time gave him absolute authority and discretion to loan himself $49,000 from Tripoli funds to save his home from foreclosure.
“Did Michael Geiger know he didn’t have authority and consent?” to use the money, Bloch asked.
In a pleading filed earlier in the case, Bloch compared the Tripoli potentate to a sovereign, noting people may not have liked Russia’s Ivan the Terrible, but “the controversy and complaints did not deny the acts were authorized.”
Other payments, Bloch said, were reimbursements for expenses Geiger advanced while overseeing 22 circus performances in other Wisconsin cities in May and June 2009. A $3,000 payment to California Closets, he said, was because Geiger agreed to store circus supplies and equipment at his own garage while the temple was undergoing renovations.
Some reimbursements may have seemed high, Bloch argued, but it was because Geiger was spending on assets the central office could use to stage the outstate circuses again and again, to save money in future years.
“Money was spent, no doubt, for the future of Tripoli,” he said.
Bloch blamed the entire Tripoli organization for bad record-keeping practices
Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf reminded jurors that all the financial records of specific times in question were missing when other shrine officials got suspicious and tried to reconstruct what happened.
“Were they lost or taken? That’s for you to decide,” Landgraf said.
“The loan wasn’t really a loan,” Landgraf argued, noting that in an earlier deposition Geiger said he never discussed with other officers whether the money was given to him or lent.
As to the claimed reimbursements, Landgraf noted the payments to Geiger always seemed to be in very large round numbers and “wildly exceeded” budgets for the circuses.
From January 2006 to September 2009, Geiger served as a police officer for the Town of Waterford, the Racine Journal Times has reported. He resigned after he was accused of getting someone to lie for him in a court case involving Geiger’s personal life. Geiger was not charged.
Last year, Geiger, who is also a master plumber, was convicted in Waukesha County of battery and criminal damage to property, and in Washington County of bail jumping, and of bail jumping and disorderly conduct in Washington County in 2016. He was sentenced to six months in jail, 18 months’ probation and ordered to stay out of taverns.