Indictment Accuses 2 Of Fraud Leasx Executives Charged With Bilking Firm Out Of $250,000

Two businessmen who boasted that they were creating 200 new jobs in Spokane are named in a federal indictment accusing them of a $250,000 leasing-fraud scheme.

Louis Robert Bories, the president of LeasX Inc., faces four counts of wire fraud, as does his fugitive business partner, Michael David Booth.

They are named in an indictment returned by a grand jury in Spokane on Jan. 12 and unsealed Wednesday.

The indictment accuses the pair of bilking a South Carolina business out of $250,000.

The FBI has investigated the fraud case since last summer, and agents now believe there may be other victims, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice.

None of the investment money has been recovered, Rice said.

Shortly after Christmas, the LeasX executives announced that a subsidiary, Angular Communications Inc., was leasing a 70,000-square-foot building at 627 E. Sprague.

Bories said the former bank data-processing building would be extensively remodeled into a large telemarketing center that would employ 200 people.

“This will be the Ferrari of call centers,” Bories told Spokane’s Journal of Business.

But on Monday night, the 28-year-old businessman landed in jail after being arrested by FBI agents outside a house in the 2200 block of South Grand.

A $50,000 bond was set when Bories appeared Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno.

Bories’ wife and grandmother, who were in court, had no comment, nor did his attorney Kevin Curtis.

The LeasX office at 518 S. Maple was closed Wednesday.

“Our office is currently under renovation,” said an answering message at the LeasX office.

Some of the company’s business apparently has been conducted recently out of a home at 2208 S. Grand where Booth was living, authorities said.

Booth, 37, who calls himself a director of LeasX, was convicted of an advance-fee fraud scheme in Sacramento, Calif., in 1995, court records show. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $104,000 in restitution to four victims.

People with information on Booth’s whereabouts are asked to call the FBI at (509) 747-5195.

The indictment accuses the businessmen of “devising a scheme” to defraud the South Carolina company, Irvine Flexible Packaging, out of $250,000.

The two LeasX executives told the company that they could get $5 million worth of leased packaging equipment for a $200,000 payment.

The indictment alleges the men also offered to get Irvine Flexible Packaging a loan to pay its outstanding debt for a $50,000 fee.

Booth, Bories and LeasX Inc. did not intend to purchase equipment or pay Irvine Flexible Packaging’s outstanding debt, the indictment says.

The first count alleges that last April 14, Booth and Bories received $50,000 by wire transfer from the South Carolina company.

Ten days later, the indictment alleges, the two Spokane businessmen received another $5,000 from Irvine Flexible Packaging.

Another charge accuses the men of receiving $145,000 in yet another wire transfer on May 1.

The fourth wire transfer of money to LeasX, totaling $50,000, occurred on May 5, the indictment alleges.