Michael Golden
A former short-time Coupeville Middle School football coach has been sentenced to 71 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud.
Michael Golden worked with the Wolf gridiron program in 2017, before moving back to Alabama.
He was charged with a federal crime in 2023, one which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years.
U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Carlton L. Peeples state that Golden bilked investors out of more than $4.7 million.
Golden pled guilty in April and was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor this week.
He faces three years of supervised release after serving his sentence.
Golden was the founder and owner of three companies — Wolf-Tek, LLC, Mountain Top Timber, and DroneTek, Inc.
In the plea agreement, federal authorities state that between January 2018 and October 2023, he duped more than 40 investors.
They say he misrepresented the value of his businesses, telling investors the companies were about to be sold for millions of dollars to Amazon and other large companies.
Golden also stated, falsely, that he had “timber leases and an ability to harvest timber for profit,” and that “he had hundreds of pre-orders for drones that he simply needed capital to fulfill.”
Golden gave some investors Promissory Notes in which he falsely promised lucrative returns on investments within a short period of time.
Federal authorities also state that he is believed to have “defrauded a new victim eight days after originally signing a plea agreement” and had his bond revoked for “contacting victims and making false promises to them regarding payment.”
The FBI led the investigation, with assistance from the Alabama Securities Commission.
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