3 local men reindicted in fraud scheme

12/20/2013

As federal prosecutors had promised, new indictments were handed up this week against three Toledo businessmen accused in a $23-million fraud scheme.

Bradford L. Huebner, 66, of Ottawa Hills, Charles N. Emmenecker, 66, of Sylvania, and Michael L. Teadt, 67, of Maumee were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday in connection with the sale of Iraqi dinar currency and two allegedly nonexistent hedge funds.

All three are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, while Mr. Huebner, owner of BH Group in Toledo, also faces multiple counts of money laundering and structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements.

The trio were originally indicted on similar charges in 2012, but on Nov. 27 — just days before their trial in U.S. District Court was to begin — Judge Jack Zouhary “regretfully” dismissed the indictment, citing a technicality raised by defense attorneys.

Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said in a news release that investors lost some $23.8 million from dinar sales and more than $700,000 from the sale of nonexistent hedge fund seats and placements.

Beginning in 2010, the trio allegedly made false statements to investors about the U.S. Treasury Department’s holdings of dinar and involvement in the Iraqi dinar investment market.

“These defendants made false statements time and again to convince people to part with their savings and hard-earned cash,” he said. “The fact that they falsely claimed one member of the conspiracy was wounded while fighting in Iraq is particularly egregious.”

A fourth co-defendant, Rudolph Coenen, 47, of Jacksonville, Fla. pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and five counts of money laundering, but he has not yet been sentenced. Coenen owned Bayshore Capital Investments LLC in Jacksonville.