Park City man who swindled $30M sentenced to 15 years

SALT LAKE CITY — A protracted statement before a federal judge Thursday prompted little sympathy for a Park City businessman who devised a nearly three-year scam that allowed him to swindle close to $30 million.

It took four tries to sentence Jeffrey Geddes, 40, for whom three earlier sentencing hearings had been scheduled. He had pleaded guilty to 52 counts of bank fraud, four counts of wire fraud and one count of failing to appear. And U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell told him that he had a "good deal" until he decided to skip out on his March 2009 sentencing hearing, prompting the failure to appear charge and forcing him to plead guilty to all counts.

She sentenced him to 188 months in prison — more than 15 1/2 years — and ordered that he pay over $7 million in restitution to the man and the institution he duped.

Geddes garnered an investor, B.H., for a number of flooring material businesses on the claim that he had a contract with Home Depot. Geddes exploited that relationship and was able to build the scheme until he had a $30 million credit line at Zions First National Bank.

He 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-based investor. 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.

Geddes was hit with a 56-count indictment in 2006 and, by way of a plea agreement, he was able to plead 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 prosecutors would dismiss the rest of the counts and limit his prison time to 10 years.

When Geddes didn't show at his March sentencing, Campbell issued 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 implied he was planning a suicide. When a search by police 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 San Diego in June 2009 by federal marshals.

Campbell said that this attempted escape not only added to his incarceration time, but cost time and money. Despite his attorney's belief that less prison time would mean more time to earn the $7 million-plus still owed in restitution, the judge was skeptical, based on the defendant's history of embezzlement, fraud and forgery.