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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hansen, CEO of Blu-ray company, indicted on fraud charges

Hansen faces mail and wire fraud charges. (Christopher Anderson / The Spokesman Review)
The California businessman who promised to convert an aging downtown Spokane building into a factory producing the next generation of home entertainment has been indicted on 16 counts of fraud. Erick Hansen is scheduled to appear in a federal courtroom in Spokane this afternoon to answer the indictment, which was handed down by a grand jury last month. Hansen’s executive vice president at BlueStar Technologies, the company that leased the building in the 1100 block of West First Avenue, also faces federal charges after allegedly receiving close to a half million dollars in commissions for luring investors as far flung as Alabama. The FBI raided BlueStar’s offices in November 2013, seizing bank statements and other remnants of Hansen’s seemingly failed venture. As recently as January of that year, Hansen was sending statements to investors that BlueStar was pursuing a multimillion dollar team-up with a movie studio, statements he knew to be false, according to allegations contained in the indictment. The indictment also alleges Hansen misled investors about his relationship with Joe Jackson, father of Michael Jackson, and his ability to produce high-definition discs of the dead singer’s home movies. The indictment alleges Hansen used investors’ money, totaling more than $10 million, for personal uses and to pay off court-ordered debts for previous business dealings that went south. Hansen also got into a spat with the Blu-ray Disc Association, the group that licenses use of the Blu-ray technology, over the name of his company. Hansen and his vice president, Sean Michael Borzage Boyd, face potential prison sentences of up to 20 years for each of the counts against them. Boyd pleaded not guilty to the charges last week and was released without bond. Hansen is not listed in custody.
This story is developing and more information will be added as it is available.