An Orleans man facing a charge of first-degree murder in the slaying of his wife has pleaded guilty to ripping off hundreds of thousands of dollars from the cheese-making company where he worked.
Former Cabot Creamery Cooperative employee Randall Swartz, 59, entered his guilty plea to a federal felony mail fraud charge Thursday in federal court in Rutland.
In addition to entering a guilty plea, Swartz “consents to the criminal forfeiture of a money judgment in amount to be determined by the Court at sentencing,” a plea agreement filed in the case Thursday stated.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
The plea agreement stated that Swartz could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison on the mail fraud conviction. Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered a presentence investigation be conducted prior to Swartz’s sentencing.
The actual prison term handed down in the case will be determined with federal guidelines serving as an advisory factor for the judge imposing the sentence.
Neither U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples, the prosecutor in the case, nor Richard Goldsborough, Swartz’s attorney, could immediately be reached Thursday for comment.
Federal prosecutors have alleged Swartz used the postal service to carry out a scheme involving Cabot Creamery Cooperative funds to purchase the parts for equipment that he assembled and sold in a side business.
Last year, Swartz was charged in state court with second-degree murder. According to court records in that case, Swartz fatally shot his wife, Thea Swartz, 54, while she was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher on May 15.
Police reports and court records say Swartz then turned the gun on himself. Police arriving at the Swartz home found Thea Swartz dead, and Randall Swartz alive, but unresponsive.
He was treated for a gunshot wound to his torso at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and later released.
The second-degree murder charge initially lodged against him was upgraded to first-degree murder late last month, the Caledonian-Record reported, adding that he has pleaded not guilty to that offense and remains held without bail.
The probe leading to federal charges against Swartz spanned well over a year and included an FBI raid on his home in March 2017.
The raid took place three months after his firing in January of that year from his longtime job as maintenance manager at the Cabot Creamery Cooperative, a major Vermont cheese producer now partly owned by Agri-Mark.
In that job, according to an indictment filed in the case, Swartz’s duties related to maintaining, repairing and replacing all machinery and equipment at the Cabot plant.
At the same time, the filing stated, Swartz also owned his own business, Kingdom Reverse Osmosis, or Kingdom RO, which sold reverse osmosis systems — equipment used in the processing of maple sap into syrup.
The Cabot plant also employed reverse osmosis technology, an indictment brought against Swartz stated.
Beginning as early as 2010 and continuing up to the time of his termination, Swartz had the company order hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of reverse osmosis equipment that was too small for Agri-Mark to use in its cheese-making processes, according to the indictment.
Instead, according to the indictment, Swartz stole the equipment and sold it as part of his side business.
In one instance, prosecutors have said, he even sold a system back to the cooperative, and in other instances had company employees on company time assemble and install equipment for his own business.
