PORTLAND, Maine — The attorney for the former president of a Camden-area charity said Russell “Rusty” Brace’s cooperation with investigators as well as his advanced age and infirmities call for a sentence of no more than 18 months in prison.
Brace’s attorney, Peter DeTroy, submitted his sentencing recommendation Thursday, one day before his client is scheduled to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland.
Brace, 81, faces up to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty May 29 to one count of mail fraud affecting a financial institution and two counts of tax fraud and making false statements in connection with the thefts of donations to the charity that began in 1999 and ended when he stepped down as president in August 2014.
Brace embezzled $4.8 million from United Mid-Coast Charities while he served as its president.
Federal guidelines call for a sentence of 78 to 97 months in prison, according to the sentencing memorandum filed by DeTroy. But he added that the guidelines also allow for a lesser sentence when the defendant is elderly and infirm and where a form of punishment such as home confinement may be as efficient and less costly than incarceration.
DeTroy provided a letter from Dr. Mark Eggena who said Brace is at a greater risk for falls because of two recent knee replacements. Brace also suffers from high-blood pressure, hyperlipidemia and hypothyroidism, and he is pre-diabetic.
“Mr. Brace has also struggled this year with situational depression and anxiety and has been followed closely by psychiatry for increased risk of suicide,” the doctor wrote.
DeTroy concluded that “very simply, the rigors and stresses of incarceration will impact him far more severely than most.” He said that the 18 months in prison could be followed by 18 months of home confinement.
Brace’s attorney also pointed out that when his embezzlement was uncovered, he cooperated fully. He met with the representatives of the FBI and Internal Revenue Service within a month of his confession, DeTroy said.
Brace began stealing donations earmarked for United Mid-Coast Charities because of several calamitous business failures, DeTroy said.
The first failure was his acquisition of the failing Center for Creative Imaging in Camden from Eastman Kodak in the early 1990s. He used considerable money he received from the buyout of his interest in a family business to buy the Creative Imaging business, DeTroy said. Brace failed to maintain adequate financial controls, and the business was bankrupt within several years.
Brace also opened a retail photography business — Maine Coast Photo — as a way to generate income. The business started in Camden, but he expanded it to Belfast, Rockland, Damariscotta and Brunswick. Technological advances in digital photography, however, eviscerated his business model, DeTroy said, and by 2007, it was functionally bankrupt and the stores had closed.
“In mid-1999, Mr. Brace began the pattern of diverting deposits intended for UMCC into a personal bank account primarily to meet the demands of his failed and failing businesses. Mr. Brace initially rationalized he would be able to repay those amounts once the Maine Coast Photo’s financial situation stabilized and improved, but, as is typically the case, that hope proved illusory,” DeTroy said.
He also pointed out that Brace’s crimes should not obscure his lifetime of efforts on behalf of the community. Brace served in leadership roles with his church, Camden Rotary, the Friends of Rockport Harbor, Penobscot Bay Medical Center, Camden Public Library and the Penobscot Bay YMCA.
“Mr. Brace brought considerable energy, passion and intelligence and helped raise millions of dollars which greatly enhanced the civic life of the affected communities. It makes his criminal acts even more confounding, ironic and tragic,” DeTroy stated.
Brace has reimbursed the charity slightly more than $1 million in the past year, and DeTroy said that he expects in the end, along with a settlement the charity reached with the First Bank, that UMCC will receive about 65 percent of the amount embezzled.
The U.S. attorney’s office had not filed any sentencing recommendation as of early Thursday afternoon.