Former SUWA treasurer pleads guilty

He and another official charged in scheme to defraud

Mark Ristow, former treasurer of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, has pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge. In May, Bert Fingerhut, who also was a director of SUWA, entered a guilty plea to the same type of securities fraud.

Ristow, 62, a resident of Indianapolis, was a SUWA director as well as treasurer for the environmental activist group headquartered in Salt Lake City. Like Fingerhut, Ristow pleaded guilty to organizing an elaborate scheme to defraud savings banks and depositors.

On May 17, Fingerhut and another man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud in connection with initial public offerings involving 65 mutual banks in New Jersey, Connecticut and other states, says a release from the U.S. attorney's office in Newark, N.J.

Ristow filed his guilty plea on Sept. 24 in Newark. The indictment against him charges conspiracy to defraud 23 mutual banks in New Jersey.

Fingerhut lived in Aspen, Colo., and Palo Alto, Calif., but was a powerful force in Utah's environmental affairs. Ristow, too, was deeply enmeshed in Utah wilderness protection drives.

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson, who is vice chairman of the SUWA board of directors, said he wasn't concerned about the actions of Ristow and Fingerhut as far as SUWA's finances are concerned, because there was no impropriety with SUWA.

What concerns him is "that they're dear friends and they've been great board members over the years."

Wilson said SUWA wanted to make sure nothing had happened that could have "even accidentally brought" SUWA into the improper actions by Ristow and Fingerhut. "SUWA has no direct involvement in it," he said.

"I think they did some investment for us but none of it was in the nature of stuff they got into" that resulted in the charges.

"SUWA didn't do any of that stuff. ... We made darn sure that SUWA wasn't drug into it in any case."

The organization feels bad for the two, he said. "On the other hand Bert has been very straightforward to us," admitting that he did wrong.

Scott Groene, SUWA's executive director, said Ristow resigned from the board about the same time Fingerhut stepped down.

"There was never a suggestion" that SUWA funds were involved, he said.

"It's obviously a very sad situation," Groene said. "Mark put an enormous time and effort into trying to protect Utah wilderness over the last 20 years."

Fingerhut was on SUWA's general board and did not serve in a specific position; he has not been replaced. Ristow has been replaced as treasurer.

On Aug. 3, Judge Peter G. Sheridan, U.S. District Court in Newark, sentenced Fingerhut to two years in prison and three years of supervised release (including four months of home confinement). The previous day, the 63-year-old Fingerhut paid $11 million in restitution required under his plea agreement, says a federal press release.

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