Reply #14: Columbus trial - Four National Century executives arrested, Quartet planned to flee to Aruba

[DemReadingDU]

4/2/08 Four National Century executives arrested
Quartet allegedly planned to flee to Aruba

Four National Century executives who were convicted of fraud last month but were free pending sentencing have been arrested.

The executives had a plan to flee to the Caribbean island of Aruba if convicted, new filings in U.S. District Court in Columbus show.

Donald Ayers, James E. Dierker Jr., Roger S. Faulkenberry and Randolph H. Speer were picked up this morning, Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Babtist said.

Federal Judge Algenon L. Marbley ordered the arrests. A court hearing is likely to officially revoke their bonds.

Ayers was arrested at his Florida home. Speer was arrested at his Georgia home. Faulkenberry and Dierker were arrested locally.

Other details of what prompted the arrests were not available.

An arrest warrant was filed last week for Rebecca S. Parrett, who also was convicted last month.

Like the others, Marbley had allowed Parrett to remain free until her sentencing this summer. She was to report to federal officials for house arrest in Carefree, Ariz., where she lives, but never showed.

She remains at large today.

All five were executives of National Century Financial Enterprises, a Dublin-based company that purchased accounts receivable from health-care providers. Investors lost more than $1.9 billion when National Century filed for bankruptcy in November 2002.

In a six-week trial in U.S. District Court in Columbus, federal prosecutors showed how the company’s collapse was due in part to the company giving millions in unsecured loans.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/02/natcent.html?sid=101


4/2/08 Convicted National Century execs arrested following alleged plot to flee country

FBI agents learned of the executives' alleged escape plan Tuesday from a confidential source, according to the filing.

"The (FBI) developed information from a confidential source, who reported to FBI that (former National Century CEO Lance Poulsen) told the confidential source that the NCFE defendants had a plan to flee to Aruba if they were convicted," the document said.

The document also said the government discovered Parrett allegedly attempted to secure false identification papers prior to her trial.

Poulsen is scheduled to be tried on similar fraud charges this summer. He and a friend, Karl Demmler, were convicted last Wednesday on witness tampering charges stemming from claims they tried to bribe a key government witness scheduled to testify in Poulsen's trial. The two men are in custody awaiting sentencing.

more...
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2008/03/31/daily22.html?b=1207108800%5E1614221


4/3/08 Defense attorneys were outraged at the allegation.

"This guy has done everything by the book," said Faulkenberry's attorney, Javier Armengau.

He said Faulkenberry calls his office every day and even checked with the court to make sure he could leave his house to drive his daughter to school.

James Ervin Jr., an attorney for Speer, said his client "vehemently maintains his innocence." Ervin said they were shocked by the allegations.

"I don't know anything about it. But I don't believe it," added Leonard Yelsky, attorney for Dierker, a vice president at Victoria's Secret.

more...
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/03/NatCenarrest.ART_ART_04-03-08_A1_B69QMOQ.html?sid=101


link to previous articles...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3249877&mesg_id=3249941