Kevin Coleman did not steal nearly $2 million “in a vacuum.”
The former CEO of Shelton-based Latex International pleaded guilty before a federal judge in February to embezzling $1.7 million from the company.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday.
In court papers filed last month, his lawyer, Robert Frost, conceded that Coleman engaged in “self-indulgent and reckless” behavior. But, he wrote, Coleman wasn’t the only one at the company doing so.
“It appears he was tempted by an atmosphere within the company that overlooked the spending habits of its executives and directors,” Frost’s sentencing memo says.
In addition, Frost wrote, Coleman’s behavior was “fueled by rampant alcohol and drug abuse.”
The document said Coleman began drinking excessively shortly after turning 16, after his alcoholic stepfather beat his mother and him for more than a decade.
And heading a large international company apparently didn’t crimp his drinking.
“When he was CEO at Latex, he and another senior member of management would go out to restaurants and get drunk two to three times per month,” the sentencing memo says. “They even would come up with reasons to have dinner meetings so that they could get drunk and run up large dinner tabs that would be expensed to the company.
“When he traveled abroad, Mr. Coleman went on drinking binges and ran up enormous traveling expenses,” the document goes on to say. “According to Mr. Coleman, ‘during the last three to four years he worked at Latex International, he drank 90% of the nights.’”
In the filing, Frost asks that a federal judge sentence Coleman to a four-year prison sentence, followed by probation.
The full memo is posted below. Article continues after the document.
Kevin Coleman’s Sentencing Memo
Not surprisingly, federal prosecutors disagree. In a sentencing memo of their own, they say Coleman “pillaged Latex to fund an absurdly extravagant lifestyle.”
They want a judge to sentence Coleman to a prison term above the 41 to 51 months called for by federal sentencing guidelines.
“He fraudulently purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry for himself, his wife and his mistress in London,” the memo, written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Glover, says. “Indeed, he purchased — with Latex’s money — an emerald cut diamond for a ring for himself valued at $56,900. He purchased a Mercedes convertible for his mistress with Latex’s money.
“He fraudulently purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise at Frontgate, Bulgari, Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Nordstrom and other merchants, all with Latex money,” the document goes on. “He spent Latex money on lavish travel expenses for him and his family. Coleman engaged in a shocking and widespread crime spree — all at the company’s expense, monetarily and otherwise.”
Prosecutors point out that in addition to the embezzlement, Coleman evaded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of taxes and ask a judge to give him a prison sentence “substantially higher” than the 48 months doled out to his co-conspirator.
“Coleman was Osmolik’s superior and a CEO who led by example — the worst possible example,” the memo reads. “While Osmolik was clearly responsible for what she embezzled, it seems clear that Osmolik was following Coleman’s lead in pilfering from Latex to satisfy her own desire for material goods that she could not otherwise legally obtain.”
And prosecutors don’t put much stock in Coleman’s rough childhood, either.
“While many people have to cope with substance abuse issues, very few of them end up committing the kinds of crimes on the scale of magnitude that Coleman has,” their memo says.
The government’s sentencing filing is posted below.
