Former California Assemblyman sentenced to federal prison for money laundering

U.S. District Judge James Donato sentenced the former State Assemblyman to one year and one day in prison and ordered him to pay $685,000 in restitution.

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After pleading guilty to money laundering, a former California State Assemblyman was recently sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison and ordered to pay $685,000 in restitution.

Serving in the California State Assembly from 1974 to 1985, former Assemblyman Terrence Goggin later became the founder and CEO of Metropolitan Coffee and Concession Company, LLC, which owned and operated four Peet’s Coffee & Tea retail centers in Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations. From July 2007 to February 26, 2014, Goggin solicited investor money for Metropolitan Coffee to build Peet’s Coffee retail centers, including two centers to be built at the Civic Center and Balboa Park BART stations.

In September 2013, Goggin solicited $585,000 from a group of four private equity investors who thought they were investing in the Civic Center project while also soliciting $100,000 from an individual who wanted to invest in the Balboa Park project. Instead, Goggin directed his employees to divert the money to other accounts, including the business bank account of Aegis Atlantic LLC, a Delaware company of which Goggin was also the CEO.

In November 2018, a federal grand jury charged Goggin with four counts of wire fraud and nine counts of money laundering. On December 4, 2019, he pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Donato sentenced the former State Assemblyman to one year and one day in prison and ordered him to pay $685,000 in restitution. Judge Donato also sentenced him to a three-year period of supervised release to follow his imprisonment. 

Goggin is presently out of custody and ordered to surrender on June 28, 2021, to begin serving his sentence.

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