Park City businessman pleads guilty to fraud

A Park City man has entered into a federal plea agreement in which he admitted to devising a scheme to obtain a credit line from Zions Bank by claiming a company he owned was supplying stone tile to Home Depot Inc.

As part of the plea deal this week for Jeffrey F. Geddes, 39, who has been working in Las Vegas, prosecutors will recommend a 10-year federal prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell plans to sentence Geddes on Jan. 26.

Geddes pleaded guilty to 52 counts of bank fraud and four counts of wire fraud. He is not in custody but is required to wear a GPS ankle monitor, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City.

Prosecutors accused Geddes of opening an account at Zions for his company, Adagio Stone LLC, and some related companies. In August 2002, he obtained a line of credit of $675,000 from Zions based on collateral pledged by an individual prosecutors only identified as B.H. and as living in Washington. Geddes requested that B.H. pledge additional collateral for subsequent increases.

The final increase was to $30 million in January 2005, according to the U.S. Attorney's statement.

But Geddes apparently didn't have the business needs to justify such a line of credit. In 2002, Geddes tried to secure a contract with Home Depot to import stone from India, but was unsuccessful. To continue receiving line of credit increases and collateral by B.H., he produced fraudulent invoices and purchase orders between Adagio Stone and Home Depot to Zions, the U.S. Attorney's statement said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office, in an indictment, sought foreclosure of $7.7 million. A hearing to determine forfeiture and restitution issues has been set for Dec. 17.

Geddes has had three attorneys representing him. Two of them were not in the office on Friday and one did not return a message left by the Deseret News seeking comment.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com