United States Attorney James L. Santelle announced today that a two-count indictment was handed down Tuesday charging Todd Dyer, age 51, a resident of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. The wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and the money laundering count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment.

Dyer was convicted in federal court in 1999 with charges related to his operation of a Ponzi scheme. He was sentenced to 70 months’ imprisonment for that conduct. Dyer and three others were charged on June 9 with running a separate scheme to defraud that resulted in various criminal counts. In that indictment, Dyer was charged in 31 counts.

According to the current indictment, Dyer defrauded a Missouri individual who was seeking funding to build a manufacturing plant. The plant was budgeted to cost $25 million. Dyer obtained $75,000 from this individual as a result of false representations and promises that Dyer had investors who could fund the entire $25 million cost. According to the indictment, Dyer had no such investors available and used the entire $75,000 for personal purposes.

The case was investigated by agents from the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Division, and agents the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph R. Wall and Benjamin W. Proctor.

The public is cautioned that criminal charges do not constitute evidence of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until such time, if ever, that the government establishes his or her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.