An Endless Stream of Lies

An Endless Stream of Lies Read Free Page B

Book: An Endless Stream of Lies Read Free
Author: Don Rabon
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U.S. Attorney Ryan. “We believe that the filing of these allegations is the first of many steps toward seeing justice served and recouping some of their losses,” he added.
    According to the indictment, which was returned by a federal grand jury sitting in Asheville on June 3 and filed under seal, from around January 2003 until about July 2006, in Henderson County, Noel and others solicited over 100 clients to invest large sums of their retirement savings with Certified Estate Planners, Inc. (“CEP”) by promising a conservative investment strategy. The indictment alleges that in about 1999 Noel created CEP to solicit investors and to offer estate planning services geared toward retirees. The indictment alleges that shortly after the initial investments were collected, without the investors’ knowledge, several million dollars of the investors’ assets were diverted, thereby significantly decreasing the value of the investments. According to the allegations contained in the indictment, those funds were diverted to Noel’s start-up lumber composite company. The indictment alleges that thereafter the value of the assets was continually misrepresented on the quarterly statements mailed to investors so that they would not know the true diminished value of their assets. In summary, the indictment alleges that by July 2006, Noel and an unindicted co-conspirator had misrepresented to investors that their assets had grown to a total of approximately $16 million, when in reality, investors’ assets had shrunk to only approximately $1 million. According to the indictment, Noel filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in August of 2007.
    Noel is separately charged in counts two through twenty-six with substantive violations of mail fraud alleging that he used the U.S. mail to cause false quarterly statements to be delivered to his investors for the purpose of further executing his alleged scheme to defraud. The indictment was unsealed following the arrest of Bryan Noel earlier today.
    If convicted, Noel faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of the conspiracy and mail fraud counts, five years’ imprisonment on each of the counts alleging false oaths in a bankruptcy proceeding, and a maximum $250,000 fine for each count.
    The case was investigated by the FBI, and the prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Rikard of the Western District of North Carolina.
    The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
     
    In the functioning of a fraud-related case of this nature, that pattern is the gold standard. Noel would be tried, Alex would testify for the prosecution regarding his and Noel’s criminal activities, and a verdict would be rendered. Following the trial disposition, Alex would be sentenced and, judicially, that would have been that. As it happened, Bryan Noel was tried and found guilty of twenty-three of twenty-four federal charges in March of 2010. The charges included “mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud.” The jury took only six-and-a-half hours of deliberation after a two week trial to reach a verdict.
    But for the federal authorities, this case was to prove to be anything but standard, and most assuredly not golden. Shortly before Bryan Noel’s trial was scheduled to begin, revelations with regard to Alex’s five-year continued deception of them and asset diversions after his apparent willingness to cooperate, came to the surface.
    On Super Bowl Sunday of 2010, Alex asked if I would stop by his house after lunch. While at his house, Alex disclosed to me that he had deceived the federal agents and prosecutors from the beginning of his 2006 meetings and cooperative efforts with them, all while holding onto diverted assets. Noel’s defense team had discovered his continued deception and diversion, and they had made the

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