Pearl Jam‘s former business manager, Rickey Charles Goodrich, was sentenced on Friday to 14 months in prison at a court hearing in Washington state, after he pleaded guilty last year to using his position with the rock band to steal US $380,000 from the band, over four years.
Goodrich, 55, had initially faced 33 theft charges over transfers made from company accounts to pay his own debts. In December he pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree theft when he was found to have made wire transfers from the band’s management company to pay his personal debts and used the company credit card to pay for family holidays, hotels and restaurants.
The executive also spent the band’s money on purchases from iTunes and Amazon.com before he was fired in 2010, according to the Seattle Times. He was accused of stealing $380,000 in all, while prosecutors said he had paid back $125,000 upon pleading guilty.
He was caught after the band’s manager reviewed suspicious transactions from 2009 at the band’s touring company and their fan group Ten Club. “(Goodrich) will remain out of custody for the next two weeks to get his business affairs in order so he can continue to pay restitution,” King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Donohoe said. “He begins serving the sentence on March 14.”
The band are yet to comment on the case, which remained ongoing since Goodrich was first prosecuted back in June, 2013. Pearl Jam were recently in Australia to play headlining stages at the Big Day Out, while frontman Eddie Vedder also used his time in the country to join fellow music legend Bruce Springsteen onstage during his epic shows in Melbourne and in Brisbane.
