9/11 sculpture embroiled in alleged fraud scheme

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A Utah artist's towering sculpture in the Maryland mountains depicting three New York City firefighters raising the U.S. flag at ground zero was financed by investor fraud, federal regulators say.

Now the 40-foot bronze statue unveiled in November 2007 at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md., is for sale. A court-appointed receiver and the sculptor, Stanley J. Watts of Kearns, say they hope to raise at least $425,000 to repay investors in Coadum Advisors Inc. — and perhaps have something left over for the artist.

"I am still upside-down $150,000 on the project," Watts said in a telephone interview, referring to what he owes his creditors.

In a complaint filed in January 2008 in federal court in Atlanta, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Coadum raised $30 million by promising investors returns as high as 6 percent per month. The SEC contends it was a Ponzi scheme that illegally used money from new investors to pay off earlier investors.

In a settlement about three weeks later, Coadum agreed to cease operations, pay a yet-to-be-determined fine and allow the court to retrieve as much investor money as possible.

Coadum, controlled by James A. Jeffery of Belle?ville, Ontario, Canada, and Thomas A. Repke of Holladay, had offices in Alpharetta, Ga., and Salt Lake City.

The receiver, attorney Pat Huddleston II of Marietta, Ga., said he has recovered $4.1 million from domestic bank accounts and other domestic investments.

Huddleston said he still is trying to recover $18.8 million that Coadum transferred to overseas accounts.

He said Coadum spent the rest of the money on operating costs and domestic investments, including Idaho real estate, a plastic-bottle manufacturing company and the sculpture, titled "To Lift a Nation."

According to court records, Coadum contracted in April 2007 with Watts to create the monument and donate it to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, based at the federal training center in Emmitsburg, about 70 miles north of Washington.

"According to Repke, Coadum hoped to reap a tax deduction from the donation of the monument to offset the enormous profits he expected the Coadum companies' investments to produce," Huddleston wrote in a report to the court.

Efforts Tuesday to contact Repke for comment were unsuccessful.

Coadum paid Watts $300,000 and incurred another $30,000 in expenses to promote the monument, Huddleston said.