Back in April we told you that former St. Louis County Planning Commission chair, Douglas Morgan, 65, from Chesterfield, had been indicted on a charge of federal bank fraud.
With that charge, Morgan could face a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison and/or fines up to $1,000,000 if convicted.
Today, the Eastern District of Missouri division of the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a release that Morgan now faces an additional charge: wire fraud.
Wire fraud carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000 if convicted.
So, how did this additional charge surface? The release explains:
In its superseding indictment, the grand jury added one additional count, charging Douglas Morgan with wire fraud. The additional charge relates to a scheme by Morgan to defraud a longtime friend and associate, identified in the superseding indictment, as J.T. According to the superseding indictment, Morgan claimed that he held secret interests in several casino projects between 2002 and 2010, including the North County Development, LLC. Based on Morgan’s representations, J.T. invested approximately $1.5 Million with Morgan based upon Morgan's claim of ownership and the false representations that the funds would be used for expenses and costs related to the casino project developments in exchange for 50% of Morgan's interest in the casino developments. Morgan instead used the funds provided by J.T. for personal expenses unrelated to the casino development projects. The new charge also relates to Morgan's securing loans of an additional $200,000 from J.T., as well as a combined $250,000 from three (3) other longtime friends and associates based upon Morgan's false representations that funds in personal trust accounts purportedly held by him had been seized, frozen, or held up in some fashion by the IRS or some other governmental agency, and the false representation to at least one of the individuals that the loan was for Morgan's portion of the Missouri gaming license application related to the proposed North St. Louis casino development.
