Former President of Maryland Corporation Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Over $885,000

Mark Chandler Goodnow, age 55, of Pasadena, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud in connection with embezzling more than $885,000 from a corporation he controlled.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Corporate officers are fiduciaries for investors and other stakeholders,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “A corporate executive cannot spend money for personal benefit and falsely report it as a business expense.”

According to his plea agreement, Goodnow was the president and chief executive officer of a national fast food franchise that maintained its principal office in Severna Park, Maryland. From 2006 to 2012, on more than 200 occasions, Goodnow spent a total of approximately $885,071 of the company’s money to pay three Texas women for telephone sex and their personal expenses and to pay prostitutes in Maryland. Goodnow concealed the unauthorized expenditures by reporting them in the company’s records as advertising expenditures.

Goodnow faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett scheduled her sentencing for October 30, 2012, at 3:00 p.m.

This law enforcement action is part of President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the FBI for its work in the investigation and praised Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Clarke, who is prosecuting the case.