He wanted revenge — so NC worker secretly sold $4M in company equipment, lawyers say
A former employee accused of defrauding his company out of more than $4 million by secretly auctioning off rental equipment has been sentenced to prison in North Carolina.
Michael Guzman was sentenced to four years and six months in federal prison followed by two years of supervised release, prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina said Thursday in a news release.
Guzman — who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering this year — was also ordered to pay $4.1 million in restitution.
The 43-year-old is from Denver, about 26 miles northwest of Charlotte, and worked as a fleet operations manager for Sunbelt Rentals in Fort Mill, South Carolina, before the alleged fraud was uncovered and he was fired last year, the government said.
From 2019 to early 2020, prosecutors said, Guzman sold close to 400 pieces of equipment without his company’s knowledge through an online auction house, funneled the money through his shell companies and bought a condo, RV, boat and several cars with the proceeds.
A defense attorney representing Guzman declined to comment in a statement to McClatchy News on Monday.
In court filings, his attorneys requested a prison sentence below the federal guideline range of three to four years, saying Guzman has no criminal record and has been punished enough after losing his job and is “now fighting to save his marriage and family.”
According to court documents, Guzman started working at Sunbelt in 2008 and worked his way up to fleet operations manager, where his job duties included getting rid of old equipment.
But his attorneys said the promotion “came with increased stress and responsibility that he wasn’t handling well.” As a result, they said, Guzman began experiencing panic attacks and “drinking heavily.”
The tipping point came in 2019, when Guzman’s lawyers said he was given a negative review and reduced bonus.
“Mr. Guzman took out his anger at his employer childishly and made a terrible and regretful decision to seek revenge against Sunbelt by setting up a shell corporation to siphon the corporation’s money and property for himself,” they wrote in court documents.
As part of the alleged scheme, Guzman is accused of setting up two shell companies and pretending to be someone named Eric Dixon. Prosecutors said he then reached out to a third-party auction house selling used construction equipment and claimed he was looking for buyers for equipment he received from Sunbelt.
The equipment, meanwhile, still belonged to Sunbelt and had never been transferred to Guzman or his businesses, the government said.
He was ultimately accused of selling 398 pieces of Sunbelt equipment and keeping the money for himself.
Guzman’s attorneys said he was able to “fool himself into believing that he could pay the money back if he were ever discovered.”
“It was not until he was fired, subjected to a civil suit, contributed to his son’s drinking and driving offense, and confronted by his wife that Mr. Guzman hit rock bottom and finally realized the enormity of what he had done,” Guzman’s lawyers said. “When he met with federal agents, he describes a feeling of relief by telling the truth and taking full responsibility for his actions.”
Guzman waived his right to an indictment, pleaded guilty in May and was released on a $25,000 bond, court filings show.
He will report to the Bureau of Prisons to serve his sentence after Nov. 1.
This story was originally published August 30, 2021 at 3:52 PM with the headline "He wanted revenge — so NC worker secretly sold $4M in company equipment, lawyers say."
