Home St. Louis Press Releases 2011 Three St. Charles County Men and Two Dent County Associates Indicted on Federal Charges
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Three St. Charles County Men and Two Dent County Associates Indicted on Federal Charges

U.S. Attorney’s Office January 07, 2011
  • Eastern District of Missouri

ST. LOUIS, MO—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that three St. Charles County men and two associates from Dent County have been indicted on multiple charges involving the theft and resale of trailers. According to the indictment, they stole the trailers, represented them as their own, and sold them to unsuspecting individuals.

The indictment alleges that they stole the trailers from storage lots and drafted a fraudulent bill of sale for each trailer. They removed the actual Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) and attached false numbers which they used to obtain legitimate titles from the Missouri Department of Motor Vehicles. Once they received the titles, they sold the trailer to people who did not know that they were stolen. This conduct as alleged in the indictment caused a loss of approximately $78,000 to various organizations and individuals.

KENNETH A. KEIL, St. Charles, Missouri, was indicted by a federal grand jury on three felony counts of interstate transportation of stolen property, two felony counts of mail fraud and one felony count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. BRIAN LEWIS HEDRICK, Wentzville, Missouri; BRETT CRAWFORD, St. Charles County, Missouri; STACY L. COLE, Dent County, Missouri; and CHRISTOPHER LEWIS WATSON, Dent County, Missouri, were each indicted on felony mail fraud and conspiracy counts.

If convicted these charges carry penalty ranges of five to 20 years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As is always the case, charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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