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Casino Cruise Owners Found Guilty

COLORADO – As reported by the Miami Herald: "The controlling owners of SeaEscape, a Fort Lauderdale casino cruise company, were found guilty Monday of running a credit card scam that led to the failure of a Boulder, Colo., bank in 1998.

"Douglas R. Baetz and Glenn M. Gallant faced a 66-count federal indictment on charges including bank and wire fraud for their involvement in BestBank, one of the largest bank failures of the 1990s.

"A Denver jury returned a guilty verdict on 63 counts, virtually assuring prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life, said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Haried. The trial began three weeks ago in U.S. District Court in Denver, with prosecutors arguing that Baetz, 54, and Gallant, 48, caused the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to lose $200 million and about 500 people to be thrown out of work.

"According to prosecutors, the scheme began in 1994, when BestBank paired with Century Financial, a failed Fort Lauderdale-based firm Baetz and Gallant also owned, to sell credit cards to people with poor credit histories.

",,,More than 500,000 people signed up for the memberships, but less than half received their membership materials, according to the indictment. When cardholders didn't make payments on the accounts, Baetz and Gallant themselves arranged to pay the bills -- $49 million over 20 months -- to keep the accounts current. The companies allegedly then tried to sell off the credit-card portfolio, misrepresenting its true value…"

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