Fake Spy Gets 6 Years for Duping Billionaire Michael Goguen
The billionaire’s former security chief convinced him to spend millions of dollars on pretend paramilitary missions.
Maggie Shannon/Bloomberg via Getty
In a case built for cinema, a fake CIA veteran conned his billionaire boss into spending millions of dollars on pretend paramilitary missions, until the scam abruptly imploded. On Thursday, the defendant, Matthew Marshall, was sentenced to six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, plus roughly $3 million in restitution. According to court filings, Marshall had convinced the billionaire venture capitalist Michael Goguen to wire him around $2 million in several payments, including $750,000 in 2015 “to strike Syrian Terrorist Leaders.” He pleaded guilty last November. The Daily Beast published a long investigation into the saga a month later; Marshall’s case was merely a single thread in the web of controversies involving Goguen.
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