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Tuesday, February 27, 2001 Suspect in Kentucky-Based Investment Scam Is Denied Bond Steve Bauer URBANA, Ill.--A man accused in the federal Omega Trust and Trading case won't be allowed to stay with his daughter, who works for a federal judge in Kentucky. Magistrate Judge David Bernthal on Wednesday denied a request that Billie A. Wilson be released on recognizance bond and allowed stay with his daughter, Diana Lynn Wynn, a secretary for U.S. District Judge Karl S. Forester of Lexington, Ky. Wilson, 69, is one of 19 people indicted on federal charges of wire and mail fraud and money laundering conspiracy, which the government announced Aug. 28. While the other 18 people were arrested, Wilson remained a fugitive until his arrest earlier this month in Pink Hill, N.C. Prosecutors described Wilson as the chief assistant of Clyde Hood of Mattoon, who is accused of being the organizer and sole owner of the Omega program. According to the indictment, the Omega program was a fraud in which investors were promised a return of $ 5,100 for every $ 100 they invested in an offshore trading program. None of the investors ever received the money they were promised, according to prosecutors. The indictment said investors were bilked out of $ 12 million, but court records show that from 1994 to July 27, 2000, two other defendants, Michael Kodosky and his daughter, Karen Tillquist-Baibus, collected more than $ 18 million in Omega funds and forwarded at least some to Hood. Records seized in a search of another defendant, Arlene Foust Diamond, showed that she and Hood solicited Omega investments as late as Aug. 26, 2000, according to court records. Prosecutors said more than $ 1.5 million in Omega funds went through Diamond from Nov. 9, 1999, to Aug. 26, 2000. "Billie A. Wilson was the number two person in this scheme and worked closely with Clyde Hood to bilk unsuspecting participants," Assistant U.S. Attorney Esteban Sanchez wrote in his argument to the court as to why Wilson should be denied bail. "The evidence will show that Wilson maintained the majority of the records for the enterprise and was the first line of communication with the investors," the court document said. In this role over six years, Wilson made false statements to participants, both orally and in writing, according to the prosecutor. At the same time, records and testimony will show that Wilson took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the "participants" and deposited much of it into bank accounts in his name or under his control, Sanchez wrote. When investigators searched the office of Billie Wilson in August, they found records "showing that investors were sending in millions of dollars per year to this Omega program," the court record states. "Absolutely no evidence was found regarding the purchase or trading of any "prime bank notes" or debentures," which Omega was said by supporters to be engaged in, according to the prosecutor's document. Police seized boxes of Omega records and more than $ 40,000 in cash and money orders, the court record shows. Records also show that while Billie Wilson was telling investors their money would be traded for prime bank notes, he deposited more than $ 775,000 of investors' money into a bank account of his son, Jerry Wilson, between June 15, 1995, and Aug. 22, 1997, according to the court records. Evidence will also show that this money was spent by Billie and Jerry Wilson, who also is accused in the indictment, the document states. Sanchez said in court that Hood had been paying for Wilson's rent in Lexington and that Wilson had been receiving money from different sources while he was hiding out from federal authorities. Sanchez also argued that Wilson demonstrated that he did not believe the courts had authority over him by signing several documents to that effect. Hood, Diamond and another defendant, Stuart Chris Engel, who all remain locked up pending trial, had also signed and filed such documents, court records show. "Mr. Wilson does not believe in the authority of this court, or any other court, including, presumably, the court for which his daughter works," Sanchez said. Wynn testified that she would be willing to let her father live in her rural Richmond, Ky., home pending the trial, but admitted that she would be gone during working hours. She has worked as a legal secretary for Forester for many years, she said. It was a call from her brother, Jerry Wilson, on Aug. 28 -- their father's birthday -- in which she learned of the charges against them both, she said. Wynn admitted she knew her father was wanted on a federal warrant and that she did not tell him to turn himself in when he called her around Christmas. "I wanted to be a daughter and not a counselor," she said. "I felt like he had enough people telling him what he should do and should not do." Meanwhile, Hood still does not have an attorney, officially. Steve Ryan, who has represented Hood for many years, was removed from the case when prosecutors filed a motion indicating Ryan may be called as a government witness. Douglas C. McNabb, a Houston, Texas, attorney, appeared in court Wednesday and said that he is "cautiously optimistic" that he will officially enter an appearance in the case on behalf of Hood. After the hearing, McNabb said that 100 percent of his practice deals with federal criminal cases. He said he had been contacted by many of Hood's friends and family about becoming his lawyer. "I like Clyde Hood a lot," McNabb said. "He is a very nice guy." If he does take the case, it's possible that he may file a motion seeking to delay Hood's trial, McNabb said. He noted that it was the prosecutors who delayed in filing a motion to have Ryan disqualified because of a possible conflict of interest and that there is much evidence to review in order to prepare a defense. "I don't think Mr. Hood, or any other defendant in such circumstances, should be damaged and punished by a late filing by the government," McNabb said. Likewise, Billie Wilson's appointed attorney, James Elmore of Springfield, said he may also consider filing a motion to push back Wilson's trial. The trial is currently scheduled for May 1 in Springfield and expected to last two months. U.S. District Judge Michael McCuskey is presiding. On Wednesday, McCuskey denied motions to dismiss charges and to have separate trials for some defendants. A final pretrial hearing is set for April 11 in Urbana. | |