TOLEDO, Ohio -
An indictment unsealed Thursday that shows four men are facing federal charges accused of running a $24 million fraud scheme here in the Toledo area. The scheme allegedly involved the sale of Iraqi currency from here in Northwest Ohio.
Those charges stem from a federal raid in offices at a downtown Toledo building on Saint Clair street in July of 2011. Authorities seized several documents from inside the second floor offices of the BH Group.
The 83 count indictment accused the men, three of them from the Toledo area, of basically taking US money and turning it into Iraqi dinar, with the pitch that it would turn into millions of dollars when Iraq's economy bounced back. The only thing this turned into was a trip to federal court.
Bradford Huebner, Michael Teadt, and Charles Emmenecker all led out of federal court today. There are 83 charges ranging from money laundering to wire fraud between the three and a man from Florida, Rudolph Coenen.
Prosecutors say they convinced investors to buy Iraqi dinar with the pitch that when its value increased so would their investment. Right now 1170 dinar equal one dollar. They also allegedly encouraged people to invest in two bogus hedge funds.
According to the indictment, the group, "would aggressively market the Iraqi dinar and the non-existent hedge funds, to the point where their customers numbered in the tens of thousands, both in the United States and foreign counties, thereby greatly increasing gross revenue to over $24 million U.S. dollars in less than a two-year period."
"He's not happy. He was just a guy running a business. The government thinks he was doing something illegal and he doesn't," said Stephen Hartman, Hueber's attorney.
Huebner, listed as the chairman of BH group, faces charges which include 20 counts of money laundering.
"He's been a business man here in Toledo for his whole life. He went to the University of Toledo. He's a Vietnam War veteran. He's been an upstanding member of the community for 40 years here," said Hartman.
"He had no role with the BH group. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Charles Boss, Teadt's attorney.
Teadt is listed at the director of business development for BH group.
"I don't believe there was anything that would merit him being indicted," said Boss.
Here's how Coenen was described in the indictment, "Rudy, is a very bright guy and has been in the industry for a long time... veteran of the first Gulf War, took a bullet over there for us."
Not only was he never injured, but he never served there according to prosecutors.
Emmenecker and Teadt are eligible for bond, Huebner will have a detention hearing Friday morning.
Read the full indictment
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