FARMINGTON, Utah — He was a title agent who didn’t forward his clients’ money in real estate transactions and forged signatures for people he was doing business with.
Then he was a construction contractor who didn’t perform the promised work.
Now he’s a convicted fraudster and an inmate. But where is all the money Ryan Goodrich stole?
That was the question in a sentencing hearing for Goodrich earlier this month. State Judge Ronald Russell gave Goodrich what could amount to 30 years in prison. It will be up to the state’s parole board to determine just how long he serves.
“There’s no question but that prison is warranted in this case,” Russell told Goodrich.
“The Court does find it especially egregious that you abused your position of trust as a fiduciary,” the judge added.
FOX 13 first reported on Goodrich in early 2023. The state of Utah suspended his title agent license. Goodrich owned and operated Synergy Title Insurance Agency in Clearfield.
Goodrich eventually pleaded guilty to a count of fraud and a charge of a pattern of unlawful conduct – both felonies. He opened a contracting business after he lost the title agent license and he pleaded guilty to crimes committed while working on that business, too, including theft charges.
“The defendant egregiously abused his position of trust,” Assistant Utah Attorney General Wayne D. Jones told the judge in Farmington.
Jones described how – as a title agent – Goodrich withheld clients’ money in real estate transactions and left families paying mortgages on properties they no longer owned.
Goodrich was buying homes, too, or offering to. As FOX 13 reported last year, he told Shellie and Reed McDermott he would buy their home in Morgan.
Goodrich never paid them the money, but – in his guilty plea – admitted to forging the McDermotts’ signatures and submitting false paperwork to the county recorder portraying the couple as having sold their home. Then he borrowed against the house.
“Once we finally got the title back,” Shellie McDermott told FOX 13 earlier this month, “then we got a buyer on the home, and we had to slash the price ridiculously because by now the interest rates are going up, and that hot, raging market was going down.”
The couple believes prison was the right sentence.
“There's no way he can come up with these millions of dollars that he stole,” Shellie McDermott said.
“Sometimes the wheels turn slow with justice,” Reed McDermott said, “but I think justice is being served.”
Some victims suffered more.
Joanna Arbogast and her family sold their home to Goodrich in December 2022 when her husband took a job in Tennessee. She logged into the court’s video link to tell the judge how, when the Arbogasts went to complete their tax return, they discovered Goodrich had not paid their lender.
“So, we were left with a home that was not ours that we owed on,” Arbogast explained, “as well as ruined credit.”
“We have three young daughters and a son that’s getting ready to go to college,” she added, “and because of what’s happened, we have no savings to send our son to college with.”
While pursuing Goodrich for the money, Arbogast started a cleaning business to help her family pay bills.
“And Mr. Goodrich had gone online and left false reviews,” Arbogast said, “negative reviews.”
Russell also ordered Goodrich to pay $6.5 million in restitution. Neither the judge nor the victims seemed to expect Goodrich to pay that.
Jones said investigators found a few hundred thousand dollars Goodrich spent on off-road vehicles and other entertainment, but much of the money remains missing.
“Of the approximately $115 million that moved through the defendant’s trust account over the relevant two years,” Jones said in court, “nearly 20% of the withdraws were either cash or wires and checks that could not be traced due to a lack of supplemental records.”
Goodrich has spent about six months in jail. Goodrich’s attorney asked Russell to sentence his client to another six months followed by probation. Goodrich planned to work at a family construction business to earn money for making restitution.
“I would like to publicly apologize to all the victims out there,” Goodrich said at the opening of his address to the judge.
“In November of 2020,” Goodrich explained, “I was presented with an offer to buy a flip house. Things went well with the flip. So, I bought another and another.
“In late 2022, I was buying several homes at a time.”
“I didn’t have the resources to pay,” Goodrich continued, “so I started using title company money to make payments and make payoffs.”
“Please understand, the only way to get this paid back as soon as possible is by avoiding prison and putting me on probation so I can chip away at restitution.”
FOX 13 found about a dozen lawsuits related to Goodrich’s title business. It’s possible lawyers in one of those cases will find the missing money.
Otherwise, the missing money is likely to come up one day at Goodrich’s parole hearing.