Saturday, July 10, 2010
Prestonsburg Man Convicted
KENTUCKY....
After about 10 hours of deliberation, jurors in U.S. District Court in Lexington returned convictions Saturday morning against 40 year old Christopher Cello Smith of Prestonsburg and his brother, 54 year old Michael D. Smith of Lancaster. Christopher Smith was convicted on seven counts of mail fraud, while Michael Smith was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and 11 counts of mail fraud. Prosecutors say Michael Smith, the president of Target Oil and Gas Co. in Albany, who owns a controlling interest in Kentucky Indiana Oil and Gas, based in Danville, and other co-defendants used false statements and misrepresentations to lure individuals into investing more than $12 million in Target Oil during 2003-2008 and then returned about $538,000 in royalties to the investors. Each faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced in October.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 9:39 PM 
