Fugitive pleads guilty in scheme

A Park City man behind a three-year fraud scheme that eventually accrued a line of credit of $30 million pleaded guilty Monday to 57 different charges that have been leveled against him in federal court.

Jeffrey F. Geddes, who was facing 52 counts of bank fraud, four counts of wire fraud and one count of failing to appear, did little more than mumble "yes" and "guilty" as he stood in front of U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell as she read each count leveled against him. Campbell ordered him to pay around $35,000 in restitution to Zions First National Bank and over $7 million to the Washington state investor he deceived.

Geddes looked thin and uncomfortable, not like someone who, from August of 2002 to May of 2005, garnered an investor for a number of flooring material businesses on the claim that he had a contract with Home Depot, built that scheme into a $30 million credit line at Zions First National Bank and then escaped federal marshals for three months.

Geddes created a company called Adagio Stone LLC as well as others under the "Adagio" name and used them to secure collateral on a bank loan from the Washington investor, identified as B.H. in court records. Geddes was able to secure the collateral and the loan on his representation of having a contract with Home Depot. He was initially given a credit line of $675,000 by Zions, which he eventually expanded to $30 million.

To perpetuate the illusion of the Home Depot contract, Geddes created a front company called Home Depot Export LLC, which he based out of Las Vegas. He was first sued by Zions in May of 2005 for $14 million, but as it was a federally insured bank, he was ultimately hit with federal charges of bank fraud and wire fraud.

Geddes' case moved from his initial 56-count indictment in 2006 to a plea agreement that was brokered in November of 2008. He pleaded guilty to just one of the 56 counts of bank and wire fraud, albeit the heftiest one that charged him in a transaction nearing $10 million, with the understanding that the U.S. would dismiss the rest of the counts and limit his prison time to 10 years.

But Geddes didn't show at his March 2009 sentencing, leading Judge Campbell to issue a bench warrant for his arrest. That morning, he removed a GPS tracking device from his ankle and sent an e-mail to his attorney that insinuated he was planning a suicide. When a search by K9 dogs in the area where his vehicle was found came up empty, federal marshals began monitoring casinos as Geddes was a self-proclaimed "professional" gambler. He was located at a casino on an Indian Reservation outside of San Diego in June 2009 by federal marshals, leading to another indictment in August of 2009 for one count of failure to appear.