Federal Grand Jury Indicts Bullitt County Man on Elder Fraud Charges

Louisville, KY – A federal grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky, returned an indictment on May 2, 2023, charging former Bullitt County Master Commissioner John Anthony Schmidt with engaging in a scheme to commit wire and bank fraud.

U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky and FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen of the Louisville Field Office made the announcement. 

According to the indictment, between September 2014 and January 2019, while serving as the trustee for two separate trusts, Schmidt devised a scheme to defraud and to obtain money from the trusts by means of false and fraudulent pretenses and representations to use the trusts’ money for his own personal expenditures. Schmidt is charged with one count of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud.

The defendant made his initial court appearance yesterday before a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. If convicted, Schmidt faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. There is no parole in the federal system.

The FBI is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Zimdahl is prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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