The founder of a Bend, Oregon-based brewery supply company has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on charges of mail and wire fraud after scamming customers out of more than $880,000, the Justice Department reports. Matthew Mulder, 52, who co-founded We Can Brewing Systems, LLC, in 2014, began defrauding customers from at least January 2017 and continued through June 2018. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon, he was also ordered to pay $887,116 in restitution.
Mulder had accepted payments for brewing systems and equipment that his company was not capable of delivering. Customers were often provided with updates falsely claiming that their orders were imminent or nearing completion. In a tactic designed to extract further funds, Mulder sent images of nearly complete systems that were supposedly theirs, along with fake invoices for shipping costs that were never provided.
The scheme involved Mulder using new customer down payments, not for fulfilling company obligations, but to cover personal expenses, repay loans, and pay suppliers. The Department of Justice states that by the time of his indictment, Mulder had knowingly defrauded 23 customers—a fact he subsequently admitted to when he pleaded guilty to all seven counts in the indictment on April 3, 2024.
Investigations were carried out by the FBI and the Bend Police Department, leading to Mulder’s indictment on February 19, 2020. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin W. Bruce prosecuted the case.
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