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To: SEC-ond-chance who wrote (10855)	12/21/2002 2:51:53 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Philly Businessman Pleads Guilty to Fraud By DAVID B. CARUSO Associated Press Writer December 21, 2002, 6:44 AM EST PHILADELPHIA -- A businessman who once portrayed himself as a white knight riding to the rescue of the ailing Philadelphia Naval Shipyard pleaded guilty to charges that his bailout proposal was actually an attempt to defraud the city of $500 million. Donald Rishell, 64, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine when he is sentenced on two counts of wire fraud next year. When he approached the city in 1995, Rishell claimed to be the agent of a firm that had developed a secret financing method capable of raising huge sums of cash and offering investors an annual return of 60 percent or more. At the time, Philadelphia was engaged in a desperate struggle to keep the old shipyard afloat. Rishell claimed to be the answer to the city's prayers. In a series of meetings and phone calls with David Cohen, then-Mayor Ed Rendell's chief of staff, Rishell outlined a scheme in which the city would deposit $500 million in three Swiss bank accounts, and within a year his company, Friona, would return the cash, plus a nearly $250 million profit. He also claimed to be able to restart the city's talks with German shipbuilder Meyer-Werft. "It was complete garbage. There was no way this could have happened," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reed said. "If the city had handed over that money, in a matter of weeks that whole $500 million would have been gone." A federal grand jury indicted Rishell and his alleged business partner, Bernd Weber of Cologne, Germany, last year. Weber is still at large. Prosecutors said he is now living in Canada, and the United States is seeking to have him extradited. Rishell's attorney, Ed Dailey, declined comment on the case Friday. Weber and Rishell were also charged with wire fraud in an alleged scheme to extract tens of thousands of dollars in fees from seven businesses in exchange for helping them obtain Friona loans. Rishell pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in that case as well as one count in the shipyard case. He has already served 32 months in prison for participating in similar schemes in 1992 and 1993. Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press