A paraplegic who was charged in 2005 with bilking several Fayette County residents out of more than $350,000 is back in business, this time in Florida, according to federal authorities.
And some of the at least $1.5 million Alexander Wright reportedly raised in the Sunshine State through what authorities call a check-kiting scheme may have been used to pay off victims here, according to court records.
Authorities also are investigating whether Wright bilked at least 15 people as part of an investment scheme in Florida, according to court papers and purported victims. Diane McConnell and Hope Thomas said they are wondering if they've lost the $750,000 they gave to Wright.
Wright, 51, of Brevard County, Fla., has not been charged in connection with the investments, but federal authorities have accused him of defrauding financial institutions. He surrendered to authorities and was jailed in late July after U.S. Judge Karla Spaulding deemed him a flight risk.
FBI Special Agent James J. Rothe alleges in an affidavit he filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando that Florida Business Bank and Bank of America lost more than $1.5 million through a check-kiting scheme run by Wright.
In such a scheme, people typically open several bank accounts at various banks, then write and deposit checks among the accounts in an effort to artificially inflate the balances, Rothe, a former certified public accountant, explained in court papers. Typically, the perpetrators withdraw money from the artificially inflated accounts as the funds become available, but before the bank actually collects on the deposits.
Florida Business Bank has filed suit against Wright in Brevard County.
Wright, who has used a wheelchair since a 1975 car crash, has had problems with the law in Colorado, Georgia, Florida and Oregon, in addition to Pennsylvania, according to court records and law enforcement sources.
He was in Uniontown in 2001, after skipping a parole-violation hearing in Oregon, records show.
He left Uniontown in the summer of 2002 and then, because of the parole problems, served the remainder of a 36-month sentence imposed for mail fraud and money-laundering offenses. Those charges stemmed from attempts to defraud the Air Force and MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, records show.
In October 2006 in Fayette County, Wright pleaded guilty to bad-check charges in exchange for other charges being dropped and restitution being made to the victims.
Kevin Kutchman, of South Union, who along with his mother, Shirley, was swindled out of more than $100,000, said the latest charges against Wright do not surprise him. The Kutchmans were reimbursed $119,500 in June 2006, Wright's attorney, Sam Davis, said at the time.
"In this country, he's slipped underneath the radar for years because they're not harsh enough about white-collar crime," Kevin Kutchman said.
If some of the restitution money paid to the Fayette County victims came from illegal means, "that's terrible," he added.
The FBI complaint says that on April 11, a wire transfer of $280,000 was sent to the Davis & Davis law firm in Uniontown from an account involved in the alleged check-kiting scheme and then forwarded to an "Interest on Lawyers Trust Account" at National City Bank in Uniontown.
That same day, a check was drawn on the National City account for $238,000 and made payable to William Howard Conn, the stepson of the late philanthropist and prominent Uniontown businessman Robert Eberly Sr. Conn, who couldn't be reached for comment, had invested with Wright, investigators said.
"Representatives of Davis & Davis said that the ... account had been used to collect funds from Alexander Wright as the result of court-order restitution stemming from a 2005 criminal investment fraud matter in Uniontown," the complaint said.
Sam Davis said he had no idea the money wired to the account may have come from a check-kiting scheme or account.
"I wouldn't have been involved," he said.
Wright's current detention order in Florida said that he "recently has been soliciting funds from individuals in connection with a suspected Ponzi scheme. One individual provided defendant Alexander Wright with more than $500,000. This gives defendant Alexander Wright the financial wherewithal to flee."
A Ponzi scheme usually involves paying abnormally high profits to investors out of money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from revenues earned by the business.
McConnell, of Melbourne Beach, said she invested $250,000 with Wright before checking out his history on the Internet.
She is glad about the latest charges and said she has been talking with the FBI about investments she and others made with Wright.
"I've got a list, a laundry list," said McConnell, a real estate broker. "There's at least 20 (investors). And there are so, so many sad cases."
She said Wright has an outgoing personality, and many of the people invested with him without doing any background checks. She said she believed she and Wright were friends and in business together.
"He's charming," McConnell said. "He just -- for lack of a better word -- worms his way into your psyche. He develops trust."
McConnell said she became aware of the federal charges after one of her bank accounts was frozen in July because of her dealings with Wright. She said she's been talking to the FBI since then.
Hope Thomas, of Satellite Beach, Fla., said she also invested with Wright after doing secretarial work for him in his Southern Building Systems office in Melbourne for about three months in early 2006.
"I invested over $550,000, which is pretty much everything ... all our money," she said, referring to herself and her 3-year-old son.
McConnell, Thomas and others celebrated Thanksgiving at Wright's home in 2006, Thomas said.
Thomas, who said she has talked with the FBI and others in law enforcement about Wright, said Wright makes people feel special.
"The way he presents himself, you think he's a very intelligent businessman," Thomas said. "And he takes an interest in people. He's very patient in finding out about people personally -- what's going on in their lives."
