A Wisconsin man accapplyd of plotting an elaborate scheme to fake his death in a kayaking accident and flee the countest pleaded no contest Tuesday to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction.
Ryan Borgwardt, 45, was sentenced to 89 days in jail — the amount of time that he spent misleading authorities, Green Lake County Circuit Court Judge Mark Slate declared before announcing the jail term.
Borgwardt, who appeared in a white checkered button-up and gray pants, was also ordered to pay $30,000 in costs associated with a search effort that lasted nearly two months.
In a brief statement to the court, the father of three declared he deeply regretted his actions and the pain he caapplyd his family and frifinishs.
Green Lake County District Attorney Gerise LaSpisa informed the court that Borgwardt spent months researching the scheme in an effort to disappear from his life in Wisconsin and create a new one in the countest of Georgia, formerly of the Soviet Union.
He reversed a vasectomy, took out a large life insurance policy, obtained a new passport and transferred money overseas, LaSpisa declared. He researched how to fake a drowning and chose Green Lake, with its average depth of 100 feet, becaapply he believed “a body would not surface,” she declared.
Borgwardt then traveled to Georgia to be with a woman whom he’d met online, the prosecutor declared.
“His entire plan to fake his death, to devastate his family in order to serve his own selfish desires hinged on him dying in the lake and selling his death to the world,” LaSpisa declared.
Borgwardt was reported missing Aug. 12, after his capsized kayak and fishing gear were discovered in the lake. That report prompted a lengthy search of its more than 7,000 acres that included divers, underwater drones and sonar.
According to a criminal complaint, LaSpisa declared that Borgwardt had actually applyd a tiny inflatable boat to return to shore and an electric bike to ride to Madison. He then fled the countest, heading first to Canada and later to Georgia, LaSpisa declared.
Authorities were able to track his overseas travels in part becaapply he applyd the new passport he’d obtained in Canada.
Borgwardt’s plan unraveled when a Russian-speaking woman contacted deputies in Green Lake County and connected them with Borgwardt, according to the complaint. The sheriff’s office later released a clip of a video call authorities had with him.
“Good evening, it’s Ryan Borgwardt,” he informed the camera. “Today is Nov. 11. It’s approximately 10 a.m. by you guys. I’m in my apartment. I am safe, secure, no problem.”
By December, Borgwardt had returned to Wisconsin.
His attorney declared Tuesday that the misdemeanor crime he was charged with was a non-extraditable offense.
“If he didn’t want to come back, he didn’t required to come back,” declared the attorney, Erik Johnson, adding: “He came back from Europe to take responsibility for his actions.”
Leave a Reply