GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (From news reports) -- Federal authorities are concerned that Ron Van Den Heuvel's conviction for bank fraud and another 14 additional counts of fraud have not deterred him from continuing to solicit investments under false pretenses.
U.S. Attorney Matthew Krueger has asked U.S. Judge William Griesbach to impose a new restriction on Van Den Heuvel's conditions of release: A $500 cap on any financial transaction unless the U.S. Probation Office pre-approves it. Griesbach will decide whether to impose the condition during a hearing next week.
The request was made in the government's second fraud case against Van Den Heuvel, filed in September 2017. Federal prosecutors allege he defrauded investors in companies connected to Green Box N.A. out of $9 million between 2011 and 2015.
Van Den Heuvel has already been convicted of bank fraud in a case filed in April 2016. He was found guilty of using straw borrowers to obtain loans under false pretenses to keep his businesses afloat. He was sentenced in January to three years in prison but is awaiting notice from the U.S. Department of Corrections on when he will begin his prison term.
In his motion, Krueger said the government continues to investigate several transactions and pitches to investors that started in summer 2016 and continued through March when Van Den Heuvel told his probation officer he intended to conduct "several complicated and sizable financial transactions in the near future."
"Given Van Den Heuvel's pattern of conduct in the past year, and the nature of the newly proposed transactions, the government has serious concerns about the legitimacy of these transactions," the motion reads.
Van Den Heuvel did not return a request for comment.
The motion claims Van Den Heuvel pitched four people on investing in equipment and companies he created to develop a system that converts food-contaminated waste into reusable paper and plastic products. In exchange, he offered them shares in various limited liability companies or a portion of potential judgments he expected from civil lawsuits he filed against former business associates.
One person encouraged to invest in his companies was sent documents that included a resume with false statements and letter on Van Den Heuvel's attorney's letterhead with the attorney's last name misspelled.
Two New York men told prosecutors they loaned Van Den Heuvel $60,000 earlier this year in exchange for shares of a company and a lien against proceeds from a civil suit Van Den Heuvel had filed. One of the men said he had previously loaned Van Den Heuvel $27,500 between July and December and that the loans were already in default.
A third New York man said Van Den Heuvel sent him documents that claimed Van Den Heuvel's wife, Kelly, has a net worth of $29 million and that one of his companies has partnered with agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. when court records show Cargill ended its partnership with Van Den Heuvel in 2013.
Van Den Heuvel had told probation officials working on sentencing recommendations in the bank fraud case that his only income was $4,099-per-month via Social Security.
In March, however, he told federal officials he was about to execute at least half a dozen sales and consulting contracts that would net him millions of dollars over the short and long term. They included a sale of stock to a man in Ghana and a 10-year consulting contract for $38,000-per-month with a Michigan company whose owner said he had no intention of hiring Van Den Heuvel or paying him anything.
"(E)ach of the proposed transactions has indicia of illegitimacy," Kreuger's motion reads. "Van Den Heuvel's representations about these businesses and transactions appear to differ depending on his audience. The government is concerned that should these 'transactions' go forward, Van Den Heuvel will defraud new victims and/or risk depriving pre-existing victims of restitution."
