Indictment Expanded In Lease Case Executives Face 80 Counts Of Wire Fraud, Money Laundering, Illegal Transactions
Two men and their defunct Spokane leasing business face an expanded 80-count federal indictment accusing them of wire fraud, money laundering and illegal monetary transactions.
The new indictment against Michael David Booth and Louis Robert Bories also seeks a forfeiture judgment of $994,000.
The two men were executives of LeasX Inc., a Spokane-based business that took money from struggling companies, promising to find them investment capital or equipment.
Several companies paid LeasX advance fees, but got nothing in return, federal investigators contend.
Booth, 37, and Bories, 28, were arrested by the FBI in January on an initial indictment with eight counts.
For the past six months, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, using FBI agents and a federal grand jury, has continued investigating the operations of LeasX.
The new indictment accuses Booth and Bories of nine counts of wire fraud, 52 counts of money laundering, 18 counts of unlawful monetary transactions and one count of forfeiture.
The indictment alleges the victims lost more than $1 million total, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice said Thursday.
The first wire fraud count accuses the men of defrauding Crawford Forest Products, of Hillman, Mich., out of $30,000.
The business forwarded the money after LeasX executives promised to arranged a $3 million master lease line of credit for Crawford Forest Products.
The second count alleges Crawford Forest Products sent an additional $66,036 to LeasX after the initial payment.
In the third count, Irvine Flexible Packaging, of Rock Hill, S.C., wired $50,000 to LeasX after being promised financing for $4.4 million worth of equipment.
The fourth count alleges the South Carolina company later sent LeasX an additional $5,000.
Later, Irvine Flexible sent separate payments of $145,000 and $50,000 to LeasX, the fifth and sixth counts allege.
The seventh count alleges that Avigen Inc., a California company, wired $124,552 to LeasX after being promised a $5 million master lease line of credit.
The eighth and ninth counts accuse LeasX of bilking Quad-Cities Construction Inc. of Lewiston out of $450,613.
After the FBI investigation was begun, $100,000 was returned to Quad-Cities by LeasX, the indictment says.
Booth and Bories spent most of the advance fees, the indictment contends.
“The advance fees were spent on personal expenses of the defendants, business expenses and the refund of previously collected advance fees,” the indictment says.
Booth remains in the Spokane County Jail, without bond. Bories is free on a $50,000 bond.
They are expected to be arraigned next week on the new indictment.
This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT Michael David Booth and Louis Robert Bories are expected to be arraigned next week on the new indictment.