A federal court judge on Thursday in Fayetteville ordered the forfeiture of more than $450,000 in cash and property that the government contends Rogers businessman James Bolt obtained by fraud.
According to the default judgment signed by U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks, the property being forfeited by Bolt consists of more than $128,000; 1974, 1977 and 1979 Cessna airplanes; a 1977 Piper airplane; two 1998 Calumet Coach buses; a 1995 Ford motor home; a 1999 Hino truck; two Volvo cars; a Chevrolet Tahoe; and a Toyota pickup.
Bolt pleaded guilty in federal court in January to one count each of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He is being held in the Washington County jail pending completion of a pre-sentence investigation and his sentencing.
Bolt was charged in a 14-count superseding indictment in October with five counts of wire fraud, seven counts of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering. He also was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of money laundering.
The charges to which he pleaded guilty, according to his plea agreement with the government, accused Bolt of using his Rogers company, Situs Cancer Research Center, to obtain unclaimed property from the California government that belonged to Community Medical Group of Corona Inc.
According to the plea agreement, Bolt faxed a forged donation agreement to the California government in May 2011 in which Community Medical purportedly agreed to donate its unclaimed property in California to Situs. It was signed by multiple Community Medical officers and notarized. Bolt later received a mailed check for more than $317,000 that the government said was the unclaimed property of Community Medical.
The check was deposited into a Liberty Bank account in Rogers, from which Bolt authorized a $24,000 check to be issued in August 2011, which the plea agreement states constituted the money-laundering violation.
The FBI began investigating Bolt and Situs in August 2012. When agents contacted Community Medical, its executives denied ever having a donationagreement with Bolt or Situs, said they had never heard of them, and said the Community Medical officers who signed the agreement did notexist. The notary public was a fictitious person, as well.
The remaining counts in the indictment involved similar fraudulent transactions Bolt carried out against two other companies for unclaimed property in California.-
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/18/2014