This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A federal judge has agreed to a short continuance of the criminal trial of former Utah County real estate guru Rick Koerber, who is accused of running a $100 million Ponzi scheme.
U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby set a trial date of Aug. 21 for Koerber on 18 charges of securities and wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. That's a two-week postponement, not the 90 days that Koerber's attorney, Rebecca Skordas, had sought.
Shelby noted in his order that the case has been pending for eight years and that issues that have arisen now were foreseeable weeks ago.
Koerber has pleaded not guilty.
A previous indictment was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups but the U.S. Attorney's Office obtained a new indictment in January and Shelby was eventually assigned that case.
Shelby also has said that he won't be bound by a ruling Waddoups made in the previous case in which he prohibited the government from using evidence at trial from two interviews of Koerber. That's because prosecutors had not obtained permission to talk to Koerber from an attorney was representing him at the time, Waddoups ruled.
Prosecutors argued that Koerber volunteered to sit for the interviews and was not represented at that time.
From 2004 to 2008, Koerber ran a series of entities grouped around his companies called Franklin Squires Cos. and Founders Capital through which he taught a real estate investment strategy called "equity milling." The companies took in about $100 million by telling potential investors they could earn 2 percent to 5 percent per month.
Indictments alleged that Koerber's enterprise was not making money and that he had used about $50 million of investor moneys to repay other investors to make the operation appear profitable.