An Orem businessman who operated an elaborate check-kiting scheme while pretending to be a multimillionaire has been sentenced to 11 1/2 years in federal prison.
U.S. District Senior Judge David Winder also ordered Ronald D. Fisher, 44, to pay $2.3 million in restitution and serve 60 months of probation following his release from prison.The stiff sentence stems from an elaborate series of fraudulent schemes that prosecutors said cost their victims an estimated $3.4 million.
According to a May 1996 grand jury indictment, Fisher gained the confidence of bankers and investors by purporting to be wealthy and lavishing them with gifts. He kept up the facade by driving expensive cars, buying valuable real estate and flying "multiple airplanes," even though he didn't have a pilot's license.
"By showing the trappings of a wealthy lifestyle, Ronald D. Fisher was able to obtain the trust of those whom he intended to victimize," the indictment said. However, it continued, Fisher had no significant assets "aside from those he was able to obtain through fraud," and he had no income "even approximating" the $2.4 million per year he claimed.
Prosecutors said Fisher told some of his victims that he had been an airline pilot for major airlines, even though he had never held more than a single-engine aircraft certificate. He also claimed he had charter flight contracts with many well-known Utah companies, the prosecutors said.
He was able to parlay his fictitious background into multimillion-dollar loans, which he obtained by telling bankers he needed the money short term until other investments could be accessed, prosecutors said.
Also, the indictment said Fisher gave expensive gifts to bank officers to influence them and gain privileges he might not otherwise have obtained. It was through those actions that Fisher, beginning in 1995, was able to "kite" large checks from one Utah bank to another.
Check kiting is an illegal technique where one check based on insufficient funds is written to cover another check also based on insufficient funds. Eventually, the kiting can no longer be held aloft, and when that happened in the Fisher case, several banks were left in "negative positions."
Fisher was indicted on 14 counts of bank fraud and operating an airplane without a license. Just before he was scheduled to enter a plea on the charges on May 27, 1997, he commandeered a multi-engine aircraft at the Provo Airport and flew it at low altitude to Nevada. He was later arrested, and in March of this year he pleaded guilty to four counts of a superseding indictment.