ELEVATOR CON-MAN SENTENCED TO LENGTHY PRISON TIME

A for­mer Arch­bold Ele­va­tor offi­cial has been sen­tenced in Ful­ton County Court to 34 months in prison for his role in the busi­ness’ 2011 defraud­ing case.

55 year old William Fricke of Wauseon, was found guilty in August of grand theft, delayed price agree­ment, mis­ap­pli­ca­tion of cor­po­rate assets and four counts of insol­vent han­dler not to accept deposits.

Fricke also was ordered to pay $3.1 mil­lion in resti­tu­tion to his vic­tims.

The case revolves around the period of March 2009 to April 2011, when Fricke deprived farm­ers of grain bank corn with a value between $7,500 and $150,000. He also accepted deposits of agri­cul­tural com­modi­ties know­ing the busi­ness was insol­vent, failed to main­tain com­modi­ties pur­chased under a delayed price agree­ment and mis­ap­plied Arch­bold Ele­va­tor inven­tory, funds or cred­its for his per­sonal use.

Dur­ing a rou­tine inspec­tion by the Ohio Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture in 2011, the Arch­bold Ele­va­tor was found to have had at least 50,000 bushels fewer of corn than it was sup­posed to have on hand.

In April, Fricke was indicted along with two other for­mer Arch­bold Ele­va­tor offi­cials, 60 year old Steven Brink of Arch­bold and 36 year old Todd Gerig of West Unity.

Brink is sched­uled to go to trial on Dec. 11th.

Gerig’s future is up in the air, pend­ing a pre­sen­tence investigation.