PHOENIX — An Arizona grand jury has issued a new indictment accusing five men of defrauding investors of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, authorities announced.
The 35-count indictment alleges fraud, racketeering and theft, the Associated Press reported. The charges replace earlier ones thrown out by a judge who said prosecutors presented a prejudicial piece of evidence to a grand jury. Those accused are former chief executive William Crotts, former general counsel Thomas Dale Grabinski, former directors Lawrence Dwain Hoover and Harold DeWayne Friend and consultant-accountant Richard Lee Rolfes.
Rolfes faces nine counts, while all the others face 31, said the Arizona Corporation Commission, the state agency that regulates securities. The foundation’s 1999 bankruptcy was the largest by a nonprofit agency in U.S. history. It cost 11,000 mostly elderly investors about $570 million. The treasurer of the agency and two others pleaded guilty last year to changes they took part in a scheme to defraud investors.
Share with others: