Federal court rejects Rogers' Bolt appeal in fraud case
By Ron Wood
FAYETTEVILLE -- The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday affirmed the conviction and sentence of Rogers con artist Jim Bolt, who fraudulently acquired some $2.4 million in unclaimed property.
Bolt, 62, pleaded guilty in federal court in Fayetteville in January 2014 to one count of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of money laundering in a plea bargain with prosecutors. The other charges in the 14-count indictment were dismissed as part of the plea bargain.
Bolt was sentenced in late June 2014 to more than eight years in federal prison, fined $50,000 and ordered to pay more than $2.5 million in restitution to the victims of at least five scams using forged documents to obtain unclaimed property and cash under the guise of a purported cancer treatment center.
Bolt fraudulently identified and claimed large amounts of unclaimed property held by California. The claims were made in the name of Situs Cancer Research Center, a Rogers company Bolt controlled.
Bolt was involved in four fraud schemes. In each scheme Bolt created fraudulent donation agreements that purported to transfer the unclaimed assets from their lawful owners to Situs. In some instances Bolt created fictitious employees of the companies and signed their names, in others he forged the signatures of actual people. He also fabricated notary stamps and signed the agreements in the names of two different notaries.
After receiving the fraudulent documents, the California officials transferred the unclaimed assets to Situs. Bolt later bought cars and real estate with the money.
In another scheme, Situs acquired unclaimed money from a trust account held by Nevada that contained a woman's life savings of more than $108,000.
Bolt claimed on appeal the loss amount was improperly calculated. He also claimed there shouldn't have been a sentencing enhancement for engaging in an especially complex or sophisticated scheme and there shouldn't have been an upward departure from sentencing guidelines because of his criminal history. Bolt had multiple convictions and arrests dating from 1973, some for wire and mail fraud.
Robert Cessario, an FBI agent who investigated the case, said Bolt had five or six larger scams and 20 to 30 smaller ones going when he was arrested. About $100,000 never was accounted for.
Bolt forfeited three properties in Rogers prosecutors said were bought with money derived from the scheme.
NW News on 04/04/2015
