A hallmark of the economy's collapse has been investment schemes gone wrong. Richard Betchley, an El Dorado Hills entrepreneur, has been charged with 30 counts of grand theft and securities violations, including bank fraud and tax evasion, for misusing nearly $2 million of investors' funds.
Betchley received nearly $2 million from friends, neighbors, and banks to invest in development property behind his former home in Serrano, California and in PostShield, a Southern California company Betchley helped oversee that was trying to sell a PVC resin sleeve to the California Department of Transportation. But, a notice of default was posted on the property in late 2008 and Betchley filed for bankruptcy in early 2009.
Prosecutors and Betchley's defense attorneys held preliminary hearings in El Dorado County Superior Court over two days at the end of December. Prosecutors claimed that Betchley used investors' money to fund his lavish lifestyle. Betchley's attorney indicated that investors' fortunes had merely mirrored the economy and the housing market. He brought forth evidence that Betchley had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop the property.
These cases are very difficult and time-consuming for the government to prove. It will have to pour over mountains of financial documents and try to disentangle improper and proper uses of money.
