Executives of former Lake Oswego company found guilty for part in fraud conspiracy

Three former executives associated with the Lake Oswego-based firm Aequitas Management were found guilty of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud in the District Court of Oregon Monday, May 15, after raising nearly $300 million from defrauded investors.

Former executive officer Robert J. Jesenik of Lake Oswego and executive vice presidents Andrew N. MacRitchie and Brian K. Rice also committed 28 counts of individual wire fraud, the verdict concluded. Conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud can lead to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a minimum of $500,000 per count.

"Today's guilty verdicts are an important milestone in the years-long effort to hold Bob Jesenik and other former Aequitas executives accountable for cheating investors and going to extraordinary lengths to conceal the precarious and rapidly-declining financial condition of their company," said Ethan Knight, chief of the Economic Crimes Unit for the U.S. Attorney's Office, in a press release.

According to the release, the executives used investor money to solicit investment from others and did not reveal the company's liquidity and cash flow problems.

Aequitas owned more than $200 million in student loans from Corinthians Colleges and its struggles began when Corinthians defaulted on those loans after the U.S. Department of Education deferred payments of federal funding to the schools. Aequitas employed close to 200 people at its peak.

"The collapse of Corinthian Colleges set off a series of events that ultimately led to Aequitas's own demise. Meanwhile, Jesenik, MacRitchie, Rice, and others committed numerous financial crimes in an effort to conceal Aequitas' bleak financial picture," the release read.

The executives claimed in a letter that Corinthians' challenges would not impact the company's ability to recoup investment, then used new investment to pay company bills and prior investors while claiming it was using the cash influx to purchase receivables. The company collapsed in 2016.

"Strictly speaking, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul isn't illegal. However, lying to Peter for personal financial gain and then not paying Paul is definitively criminal," said Special Agent in Charge Adam Jobes in the press release. "Corporate executives engaged in fraud tell a multitude of lies, and one of the first is convincing themselves they will get away with it. Today, these individuals are learning the cold, hard truth — they undeniably have not gotten away with it. IRS:CI is committed to bringing conmen and fraudsters to justice."

Former executives Brian A. Oliver, Olaf Janke and Nelson Scott Gillis (of Lake Oswego) had pleaded guilty to various charges in 2022.