William Warren Geary, 72, of Manhattan Beach, was sentenced Dec. 15 in Federal Court in Santa Ana to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay back almost $1 million he took from fellow co-owners of a Florida mall that he helped build in 2002.
Geary was also ordered to serve three years of supervised probation by Judge David O. Carter.
The real estate developer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in September. He was accused of taking the money his partners gave for improvements and using it for his personal benefit.
Geary built the Ocean Walk Shoppes in Daytona Beach in 2002 with George Anderson and Jerry Fincke “to be a focal point for the district’s revitalization,” according to the Daytona Beach News Journal. After buying out his partners, he sold part of the mall’s ownership to nine California investors. He managed it through his LA-based company Carlsberg Management Company.
Anderson attributed Geary’s actions to the bad economy in a letter sent to the judge on Geary’s behalf.
“Unfortunately in 2008, from an economic point of view, we had the ‘perfect storm’ that brought down a lot of hard working, well intentioned people in Daytona Beach and around the country,” he wrote. “Many of those people, in my opinion, were of great character and integrity. I see Bill Geary as one of those otherwise very good people that got caught in the worst financial crisis to face our country since the Great Depression.”
Anderson’s letter was one of 40 sent by family, friends, former employees and business associates to the court.
In 2009, Geary asked his partners for $1.25 million to make improvements for Sloppy Joe’s Restaurant and Ker’s WingHouse, which were prospective tenants. The partners sent him $891,791.
“Instead of using the funds as promised, Geary and his bookkeeper caused almost $900,000 of [Ocean Walk Shoppes] funds to be used for Geary’s personal benefit,” the IRS, which helped investigate and prosecute Geary, said in a press release.
Geary and his lawyers said he used the money to keep Carlsberg Management Company afloat.
“I requested this money because, at that time, I had just closed negotiations with two new restaurants set to occupy substantial space in Ocean Walk and those funds were needed to build out the space they would occupy,” Geary wrote in a letter to the judge before his sentencing. “However, when I made the requests, I knew we wouldn’t need to pay the funds to the tenants for several months, and I intended to have my company, Carlsberg, borrow the funds in the meantime. While I initially intended to repay this money when it became due, I could not do so because the market changed.”
Geary faced up to 15 years in jail and $500,000 in fines. In a memo to the judge regarding his sentencing, his lawyers, Aaron S. Dyer and Matthew M. Brady, asked for a combination of house arrest, probation and/or community service instead of jail time. They cited his acceptance of responsibility for his crimes, lack of a prior criminal record, age, heart problems and past military service.
“The other punishment this man has already suffered, and will continue to suffer for the rest of his life — from the public humiliation, including coverage by the local paper in his Manhattan Beach home town, to having to tell his wife, his grown son and daughter, and his granddaughter, who all loved and revered him; to having to explain what he had done to his former business associates and employees as he sought their assistance; and for Mr. Geary, one of the most painful punishments, the loss of his beloved right to vote — have left him with scars that will not easily fade,” they wrote.
During his probation, Geary cannot engage in any real estate or investment business without written approval of his probation officer. He has until Feb. 9 to turn himself in. ER
