Oregon company that promised to ship custom-made brewing products defrauded 23 businesses of nearly $900K - oregonlive.com

In 2014, Matthew Mulder co-founded the Bend-based WeCan Brewing Systems that offered microbrew systems, keg washers and other industrial brewing products to customers across the country. WeCan Brewing, though, began falling behind on its orders just a few years after it started operations, according to court records.U.S. Attorney's Office

A Bend business owner who promised to sell custom-made brewery equipment to 23 businesses across the United States but took their money and never shipped the products was sentenced Tuesday to nearly two years in federal prison.

Matthew Mulder, 52, also was ordered to pay $887,116 in restitution. He pleaded guilty in April to four counts of wire fraud and three counts of mail fraud.

“People get into business all the time and it collapses because of bad decisions. This became criminal the minute you just started lying to everybody about the delivery of equipment that was never going to come and the results were catastrophic,” U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane told Mulder.

The judge ordered Mulder, who remains out of custody, to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service on April 8, allowing him time with his wife who is undergoing chemotherapy.

Mulder in 2014 co-founded the Bend-based WeCan Brewing Systems that offered microbrew systems, keg washers and other industrial brewing products to customers across the country. WeCan Brewing, though, began falling behind on its orders just a few years after it started operations, according to court records.

Mulder had companies sending him down-payments for products but then wouldn’t deliver on the orders and strung along his customers with unmet promises or simply stopped responding to their inquiries, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin W. Bruce.

In June 2018, for example, a customer wrote WeCan a $7,500 check to buy a keg washer after Mulder promised it would be ready in four to six weeks. But Mulder failed to deliver the washer and didn’t respond to calls, which typically went to voicemail, Bruce said.

Many of the victims were small businesses that placed their faith in Mulder to provide an essential piece of equipment, he said.

“The wreckage that Mr. Mulder caused because of this fraud was devastating,” Bruce said. “These are small businesses that were … scraping money together to build something for their families and their futures.”

The fraud caused some businesses to close, while others lost significant money, the prosecutor said.

“They’re still dealing with bankruptcies. They’re still dealing with debtors. They’re still dealing with a loss of income, the loss of their investments, their IRAs,” Bruce said.

Indiana businessman Jared Tyler said in a letter to the court that he had to delay the opening of his brewery after he and others took out a loan to buy brewing equipment from Mulder’s company. A partner had flown out to Bend from Indiana to meet with Mulder. They paid for the equipment but it was never shipped.

“We trusted Matt to fulfill his obligations,” Tyler said. “We were lied to. There was no remorse shown.”

He and others are still paying off the loan, he said.

Dustyn Brewer of Kings Bluff Brewery in Clarksville, Tennessee, called into the Eugene courtroom to address the judge and said he and his wife flew to Oregon to meet with Mulder before placing an order for a complete brewing system. They got a small business loan and planned to open their own brewery in 2018, he said.

“This man looked us in the eye, shook my hand and lied to us. He gladly took cash from us with a promise of completing a brewing system for us to be able to open in a timely fashion, with more money to be wired if necessary for a custom build,” Brewer said.

“We shared beer and fellowship, flew back to Tennessee with the hopes of having our brew house in order and began the process of completing our preparations. … Fast forward to July of 2018, nearly two months prior to our projected opening date, and nothing had arrived.”

When Brewer called Mulder to press the matter, he was told to wire more money for shipping equipment that didn’t come, he said.

Because of the fraud, Brewer said he had to dig into family savings to buy a new brewing system and pushed opening day back to 2019. But he and his wife ultimately were forced to sell their brewery to new owners because they had to borrow so much money, he said.

The two are now filing for bankruptcy, he said. “I’m not only mad, I’m aghast at how a group of people who do everything by the rules and … attempt to make a living in this crazy world” can be “cheated” by a “greedy person” who squandered their savings, he said.

Investigators traced transfers of tens of thousands of dollars from victims’ bank accounts, ranging in sums of $6,000 to $42,000 at a time, to Mulder’s bank account, as well as checks that victims sent via FedEx to Mulder between January 2017 and June 2018.

Defense lawyer Ryan T. O’Connor urged a probationary sentence to allow Mulder to continue to work to pay back those he defrauded and to take care of his wife.

Mulder came to the company as a builder of brewing supplies and didn’t anticipate handling the financial books until his partners left and he ended up running the business, O’Connor said.

“He got overwhelmed,” he said. “He got behind and made mistakes and was trying to play catch-up. … He knows he caused real, real harm to people.”

Since Mulder was charged in 2020, he lost his job and found work as a cook on a fishing boat in Alaska. He’s now back in Bend, working as an executive chef at Greg’s Grill and is the sole breadwinner for his family of four and the caregiver to his wife who has cancer, his lawyer said.

“I didn’t mean any harm but I know I’ve caused it and I take responsibility for that,” Mulder told the judge.

Bruce, the prosecutor, argued that Mulder’s fraud was “too broad and devastating” to warrant a sentence of less than two years.

Mulder frequently promised timelines he knew he could not meet and sent photos misrepresenting that a customer’s equipment was almost ready to draw additional payments, Bruce said.

Mulder used the money to pay off personal expenses, loans and to make payments to other suppliers, Bruce said.

The judge said he considered Mulder’s personal circumstances but felt a prison term was appropriate given the seriousness of the crime. He sentenced Mulder to a year and nine months in prison.

“It’s really impacted, not just businesses in a business sense, but it’s impacted people who had future dreams of retirement, of creating a new business, of starting their own American dream -- all dashed because of promises and lies that you got yourself and them involved in,” McShane said. “And, it has been very devastating.”

-- Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, [email protected], follow her on X @maxoregonian, or on LinkedIn.

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