Carl Wheeler

After a judge rejected the plea deal he’d struck with prosecutors, a Powell man decided to instead plead guilty to all of the charges filed against him in connection with a decade-long embezzlement scheme.

At a hearing last week, Carl Wheeler admitted that he stole $1.28 million from his employer, Cody-based Sage Publishing, between 2011 and 2023.

“... This is in an effort to get this resolved and take responsibility,” said defense attorney Sam Krone, to agreement from Wheeler.

Because Wheeler offered a so-called “cold plea” to the four felony theft charges, his sentence will be solely up to Park County District Court Judge Bill Simpson.

Wheeler, who turns 76 this year, embezzled the money while Sage Publishing operated about 10 community newspapers and employed a couple hundred people. The company’s local publications included the Cody Enterprise, which sold to a new owner in 2022, and The Buyer’s Guide, a since-shuttered shopper that was jointly owned with the Powell Tribune.

Wheeler initially worked for Sage as an outside accountant before moving in-house in 2004, and he managed the bulk of the company’s finances. The embezzling reportedly began in April 2011.

“I basically transferred money from the Sage Publishing money market account to one of my personal accounts,” Wheeler testified during last week’s hearing.

To disguise the transfers, Wheeler said he recorded them in an account that didn’t show up on Sage’s financial statements.

“It was on the general ledger, but … I didn’t print that out every month,” Wheeler said, adding that the transactions “wouldn’t have stuck out.”

He admitted to siphoning funds into four different personal accounts over the years, which formed the basis for the charges. For example, charging documents say that on one day in August 2023, he transferred $6,000 to his account at First Bank of Wyoming, $2,000 to his PayPal account and $2,000 to his account at Wise, a financial services company that specializes in global payments. 

Charging documents quote Wheeler as telling Cody police that a portion of the money went toward medical bills for his wife in Ukraine. At his initial court appearance in the fall of 2023, Wheeler testified that he had few assets outside of his Powell home.

‘A sacred trust’

One of Sage Publishing’s owners discovered the suspicious transactions and contacted Cody police in September 2023. In his initial interview with police, Wheeler reportedly estimated that he’d borrowed about $230,000 and intended to pay it back; at last week’s hearing, Wheeler said he had no reason to dispute authorities’ calculations that he’d taken a total of $1,283,550.66.

“There was no loan agreement, there was no quid pro quo, for lack of a better term, you embezzled the funds; you knowingly did it, and you knew when you were doing it, it was a crime, did you not?” Simpson asked.

“Yes, I did,” Wheeler said.

He also agreed with the judge’s comment that certified public accountants have “a sacred trust with those funds and monies that you oversee.” State records show Wheeler served as a CPA from 1986 through last year, when he retired.

He’s been on house arrest since October 2023.

Court-imposed deadline

Documents in the case indicate the defense and the Park County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office struck a plea deal by late February. A filing says Wheeler agreed to plead guilty to one of the felony counts and to pay the $1.28 million in restitution, while retaining the ability to argue for whatever sentence he wished. In return, the state would dismiss the other three felony counts and seek no more than four to six years of prison time.

However, Simpson rejected that proposal, according to the parties. He then issued an order saying that, if Wheeler didn’t change his not guilty plea at the March 12 hearing, they would proceed to a trial on April 7.

“No continuance will be granted,” Simpson wrote.

Wheeler ultimately decided to admit to all four felonies without a formal plea agreement in place.

Sentencing will be scheduled after the Wyoming Department of Corrections prepares a presentence investigation — a process can take a couple months.