Member of Coors brewing family bilked in scheme
DENVER (Reuters) - A Canadian man was arrested on charges of defrauding a member of the Coors brewing family of Colorado, allegedly using the money to buy clothes, jewelry and cars, according to documents released on Wednesday.
Claude Lefebvre, 59, made his first court appearance in a Los Angeles federal court Tuesday after he was arrested.
According to an affidavit signed by U.S. Postal Inspector George Allen and released by the U.S. attorney's office in Denver, Joseph Coors and business partner K. Mack Robinson gave money to Lefebvre on the condition he only invest in bonds or bank instruments with high quality credit ratings.
Lefebvre, who was referred to Coors and Robinson by a law firm, allegedly told the two he was federally licensed to trade bonds.
According to the agreement Lefebvre promised the investors profits would be a minimum of 75 percent a week.
Coors sent $40 million in late June to a Merrill Lynch account in Texas and was told by Lefebvre in early August his money had grown to $50 million. However, by mid-August Coors had not received any return on his investment.
According to the postal inspector's investigation the money from Coors was used to buy U.S. treasury bills. But then Lefebvre and an associate allegedly used the $40 million T-bill account as collateral to borrow $20 million that was placed in another Merrill Lynch account controlled by Lefebvre. The money was used to pay credit card charges like $200,000 to American Express, $10,000 to retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, $87,000 to a jewelry company and $36,000 to a company called Cars with Class. None of the money was used for bond trading.
Funds still in the Coors account have been frozen.
Lefebvre was arrested last week in Los Angeles after returning with his girlfriend from Mexico. He was charged with wire fraud and if convicted could go to prison for up to five years.
09/04/02 20:52 ET |
