Feds: Speer arrested after escape plan to Aruba was hatched

A Peachtree City man convicted of participating in a $3 billion securities fraud scheme has been placed in custody after federal officials learned he and three co-defendants were planning to escape to Aruba, federal officials said.

Randolph H. Speer, 58, was the chief financial officer for National Century Financial Enterprises and he was convicted by a federal jury in Ohio March 13 for conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

The company, based in Dublin, Ohio, was one of the largest healthcare finance companies in the country before it filed for bankruptcy in November 2002.

Speer and four other defendants schemed to deceive investors about the company’s financial health, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Ohio. Their convictions came after a six-week trial on the matter, though the jury deliberated less than two days before finding all five defendants guilty.

While Speer and three other defendants were caught after officials got word of their plans to flee to Aruba, the fifth defendant, Rebecca S. Parent, 59, of Carefree, Ariz. cannot be located, U.S. Attorney’s officials said.

At trial, evidence showed that NCFE concealed shortfalls by moving money back and forth between accounts, fabricating data in investor reports, incorporating false information into the accounting system and making other false statements to investors and rating agencies, officials said.

Between May 1998 and may 2001, NCFE sold notes to investors worth a total of $4.4 billion, but they were worth approximately six cents on the dollar at the time the bankruptcy was filed in November 2002, officials said.

Speer faces up to 140 years in prison and $4.25 million in fines, officials said.

“This case is one of the largest corporate fraud investigations involving a privately held company headquartered in small town America,” said Assistant Director Kenneth W. Kaiser of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI continues to leverage its corporate fraud expertise gained through large-scale investigations such as Enron and WorldCom, to ensure that corporations represent their true health. From Dublin, Ohio, to Houston, Texas to New York, New York, the message is clear that the FBI will not stand by as corporate executives manipulate their financial statements and conceal illegal activities from criminal and regulatory authorities.”

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Ohio with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. postal inspectors and the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency.