Former MERS/Goodwill vice president Ronald Partee was living the high life. The 45-year-old St. Louis man enjoyed travel, drove a 2002 Porsche and attended numerous concert and sporting events -- despite a job at the Goodwill/MERS non-profit that paid just $35,000. He told his suspicious co-workers that he made his money investing in real estate.
Partee's claims were as phony as a Match.com profile. He was actually stealing money from the agency where he worked -- stealing more than $1 million from the agency, which helps disabled adults, to subsidize his fabulous lifestyle.
But crime only pays in the short run, and the U.S. Attorney's Office announced today that Partee, who pled guilty in January to felony embezzlement and money laundering, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison. That's almost six years.
Partee was also ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case.
"Mr. Partee violated his position of trust with Goodwill and duped them into paying for his lavish lifestyle," said C. Steve Howard, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in a news release. "The consequences of his criminal conduct include prison and being branded a convicted felon."
Couldn't have happened to a more deserving man. We can only hope he's already sold that ill-gotten Porsche -- and that the money went to help Goodwill's clients and not whatever lawyer helped him escape even more prison time.
