This is what happens when a bad guy gets his due! <GGG>
OT of course!
SHWAYDER FACING PRISON TERM EX-SAMSONITE EXECUTIVE FOUND GUILTY OF FRAUD FOR BRIBING STOCKBROKERS ( Denver Rocky Mountain News )
SHWAYDER FACING PRISON TERM EX-SAMSONITE EXECUTIVE FOUND GUILTY OF
FRAUD FOR BRIBING STOCKBROKERS
A Greenwood Village businessman whose grandfather founded Denver's Samsonite Corp. is facing several years in federal prison and more
than $400,000 in forfeitures after a jury convicted him and a former
associate of securities fraud.
Keith Shwayder, 60, who also served as a vice president for Samsonite
in the early 1970s, was pronounced guilty Dec. 23 of bribing stockbrokers with cash and stock to get them to hype the shares of Teletek Inc.,a company he founded in 1980.
Shwayder and Kevin Orton of Salt Lake City, an outside accountant for Teletek and subsidiary United Payphone Services Inc., were each found guilty of racketeering, conspiracy and mutiple counts of money
laundering and stock fraud. Both men are scheduled to appear April 14 in Las Vegas federal court for sentencing by Judge Philip Pro. The judge also will rule on jurors' recommendations that Shwayder should forfeit $414,000 and Orton $200,000.
On Monday, Shwayder said he was wrongly convicted and is innocent of all charges. ''I'm completely innocent,'' said Shwayder, who described his current occupation as a consultant for the low-power TV industry. ''It was a complicated case, and I think it was difficult for the jury to focus on my issues.''
A third defendant in the nearly two-month-long trial, Michael Swan of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to all 72 counts against him after the first month of testimony. Swan, who ended up testifying against Shwayder, left Teletek as president and chief executive in May 1995 shortly after federal regulators launched an investigation of the Las Vegas telephone company.
Shwayder founded Teletek in 1980 and served as president for 12years before turning the company over to Swan. The convictions stem from federal grand jury indictments returned in November 1996 alleging bribery of stockbrokers in 10 states, including Colorado, and faudulent trading of Teleteck and United Payphone stock between November 1991 and December 1995.
In 1997, six stockbrokers and promoters pleaded guilty to securities
fraud and other criminal counts in the bribery scheme.All told, nearly three dozen people have pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.
Many of those defendants agreed to cooperate in the government's investigation.
During the Las Vegas trial, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce
Bettigole said Swan and Shwayder sent bribes to brokers by ''stuffing'
' Federal Express envelopes with thousands of dollars in cash.
Shwayder's attorney, John Schlie, said his client was convicted without any direct evidence linking him to the payoffs.'The jury concluded he must have known something just based on the amount of paper involved,'' Schlie said Monday.''The primary question at the trial at the beginning was not whether payments were made but for what purpose.''
Shwayder is the grandson of Jesse Schwayder, who founded luggage
maker Samsonite Corp. in 1910.
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