Silverwood embezzler gets up to 14 years

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

Silverwood Theme Park’s former chief financial officer was sentenced this week to at least three years in prison for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Athol family fun park.

Christopher A. Wyatt, 43, was sentenced Tuesday in Coeur d’Alene’s First District Court to a three-year fixed prison term and 11 years indeterminate, to be used at the discretion of the Idaho Department of Correction.

District Judge Scott Wayman imposed the sentence, which is the same three- to 14-year prison sentence that co-defendant Melissa K. Foeller received at an earlier hearing.

Wyatt pleaded guilty last year to two counts of grand theft for stealing more than $160,000, while prosecutors dismissed three additional grand theft charges.

All of the felonies stem from a three-year period beginning in 2014 and ending in July 2017 when Wyatt and Foeller used company checks and credit cards to pay for trips, hotel rooms, household expenses such as satellite television and air conditioning, groceries and personal medical expenses not covered by insurance.

Deputy prosecutor Laura McClinton on Tuesday said Wyatt must be held responsible for stealing from a family business.

“His employers trusted him … he was put in a position of trust … He betrayed that trust,” McClinton said. “He abused his position.”

McClinton accused Wyatt of shifting blame to Foeller, who was the company accountant, and said that Wyatt signed off on checks Foeller used to embezzle funds for herself.

“They covered for each other,” McClinton said.

But defense attorney Jim Siebe said his client had tried for years to fire Foeller to no avail, and that Wyatt was not savvy enough to keep track of the books.

“My client is not an accountant,” Siebe said. “He doesn’t qualify to take the CPA exam.”

Wyatt was a “cash-based guy,” Siebe said, who didn’t have a credit card or a checkbook, but paid for everything in cash. He turned in expense receipts and took draws to cover for expenditures the company wouldn’t pay for until he got caught in a backlog of debt.

“It’s a backward approach to taking care of money,” Siebe said.

When Wyatt’s wife died in 2015, the funeral expenses were paid by his employer, who expected to be repaid, but Wyatt began drinking and further losing track of his finances.

Siebe protested the prosecutor’s sentencing recommendation.

“This case drew more on laziness and ignorance,” Siebe said. “It’s a lot different than someone who tried to manipulate the system as Ms. Foeller did.”

Although Wyatt had no prior criminal record, Wayman said neither probation nor a prison rehabilitation program were appropriate.

“I have no doubt if I put you on probation you would comply and follow all the rules,” Wayman said, but probation wasn’t an option.

“This was a huge theft,” Wayman said.

In an addendum to the initial $164,284 restitution amount, Wyatt and Foeller’s restitution was tallied at $997,431.60, “to be paid joint and several with Melissa Foeller,” according to court records.