A civil case filed in federal court under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act names Paul Allen, the promoter behind the announced data center in Floyd, as a participant in a "loan kiting" scheme that threatened the solvency of a 100-year-old family-owned bank in Oakland, Tennessee.
Oakland Deposit Bank cites RICO in its case against former president and CEO Stephen D. Henry. According to court filings in the case, filed on August 14, 2009, in U.S. District Court in Memphis, the bank says it lost millions in the scheme and charges Henry with breach of fiduciary duty.
The bank, founded in 1904 by the Henry family, was sold in January of this year to Tennessee banker Marion "Ed" Lowery, who immediately invested $12 million in the financial institution. On December 2, 2008, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) found the bank had engaged in "unsound banking practices and violations of laws," issued a cease and desist order and forced the bank’s sale.
Court papers say Henry, acting as the bank’s chief executive with unquestioned authority to approve loans, set up loans in shell companies and other people’s names and proceeds were then diverted to Henry and his co-conspirators: Stephen L. Sims of Memphis and Paul Allen of B-Telecom of Ohio.
According to court files:
Henry became acquainted with Allen in or around 2002 and subsequently originated a personal loan for Allen.
From 2002 to 2008, Henry opened deposit accounts and originated several loans for businesses owned or controlled by Allen, including, but not limited to, actual or purported businesses known as the following: BTl Home Theatre, Inc.; B-Telecom Construction, Inc.; M&A Holdings, LLC (a Montana entity); M&A Holdings, LLC (a Tennessee entity); Fiber Media US, Inc.; S& P Properties, LLC; and BTl Sales Management & Marketing LTD.
From 2002 to 2008, Allen also provided Henry with personal information for individuals with whom he worked or was acquainted for the purpose of originating loans in their names. These borrowers included residents of Ohio, Montana, Tennessee, and Canada.
Many of the Allen-related loans were fixed-term loans, while others were lines of credit. Most of the loans were unsecured and, as in the case with the Sims-related loans, Henry did not engage in any due diligence to investigate the credit-worthiness of the borrowers.
After the initial loans were made, Henry and Allen created subsequent loans in the names of the individual borrowers without the borrowers’ knowledge or consent. Signatures for the borrowers on the subsequent loan documentation was typically forged.
The proceeds from these loans were channeled to Allen for his personal use and to fund Allen’s business ventures.
In another instance of loan-kiting, loan proceeds were often used to pay the interest due on loans to Allen’s businesses and other Allen-borrower loans, as well as to cover Allen’s excessive and chronic deposit-account overdrafts.
In order to obtain funds to keep the scheme going and to obtain cash for other purposes, Henry inflated loans, increasing the principal amount of a loan without the borrower’s knowledge or consent. Henry often used those funds to cover the interest payments for Allen’s loans and overdraft amounts. As with the Sims loan scheme, Henry personally benefited from the Allen loan scheme by means of obtaining large amounts of cash through cash-out transactions.
A federal criminal investigation is ongoing.
Allen came to Floyd County in 2008 and began negotiating with the Economic Development Authority to purchase 51.5 acres of undeveloped land in the county’s Commerce Park to, he said, build a "world class" data center.
Earlier this year, the Ohio Secretary of State revoked the certificate of authority and the articles of incorporation for B-Telecom, the original company name used by Allen to promote the deal.
A month later, Data Knight 365 emerged as the company backing the project, along with Power Direct of Cleveland, a telemarketing firm fined by the Federal Trade Commission for violating federal Do Not Call registry rules.
Bill Byler, an Amish businessman from Middlefield, Ohio, and a partner with Allen, became the owner of record for Data Knight 365, which filed organizational papers with the Ohio Secretary of State in April.
Allen and Byler moved into apartments at the Station on South Locust project across the street from the Floyd Country Store. Allen bragged to others that his company was a "world class developer" of data centers with locations all over the world. Dun & Bradstreet, however, listed B-Telecom as a "data entry service" with 11 employees at one location in Parma, Ohio. Data centers listed on the company’s web site did not exist.
Allen continued to promote the project and work with county officials under the Data Knight 365 name and the new comppany announced plans for the data center three weeks ago in a press release listing, as a contact, Don Sabin, an Allen associate at B-Telecom. A two-page web site was set up through Citizen’s Telephone in Floyd.
As late as last week, the county appeared ready to proceed with closing on the $900,000 purchase and was waiting on additional documentation and a $100,000 deposit from Data Knight, due by September 1. County officials said they were unaware of Allen’s previous problems but based their belief in the project on the backing of Power Direct.
Allen moved out of the apartment on Locust Street last week, telling some he had relocated to Montgomery County and saying to others that he is now living "between Floyd and Roanoke." The apartment is still rented by Data Knight 365.
I knocked on the doors today of the two apartments rented by the company.
No one answered.
The closing of Famous Anthony’s in Blacksburg is, unfortunately, another visible sign of a troubled economy. Another sign came in an email today: The chain that now owns the newspaper where I reported for 11 years is filing for bankruptcy protection.
