By KRYSTAL J. CARMAN
Oologah resident and former Claremore American Legion baseball coach, William Todd Bingham, is facing federal prison time for taking $7 million from investors in a fraud and money laundering scheme.
Bingham, 42, coached the Claremore-based Rogers County Rangers for three seasons. He was head coach for two seasons and assistant coach during the just-completed season. He resigned his position on Aug. 1, two days after entering a guilty plea in the U.S. District Court case in Connecticut.
Bingham was indicted in federal court in Connecticut July 24, entered a guilty plea July 30 and is set for sentencing Oct. 17.
According to the indictment, Bingham persuaded 42 Connecticut investors to give him millions of dollars between May 2001 and June 2007. Bingham said he was using the money to finance a car-buying and resale business. According to documents filed in the federal court case, he had told investors that he purchased large volumes of vehicles at auctions and resold the vehicles to national car rental companies for profit.
Investors were told Bingham had been selling vehicles to the companies for 10 years, making $200 to $300 profit per vehicle. However, court records show that Bingham never had any such agreement with a car rental company.
The indictment states that Bingham provided investors fictitious documents, some which showed he had purchased 7,497 vehicles and made a gross profit of more than $2 million in 2002.
Connecticut investors provided $1.8 million to finance Bingham’s false business. That money came via wire from bank accounts in Connecticut to bank accounts in Oklahoma which were controlled by Bingham, the indictment states.
On July 27, 2005, court records show that Bingham convinced an investor to wire $59,990 from California to Lakeside State Bank in Oologah. On the same day, Bingham drew a cashier’s check for $15,000 from the bank account and transferred it to a person, T.B., who deposited the check into an account at RCB Bank.
Investors provided Bingham with approximately $7 million to finance his alleged businesses, for which Bingham promised 50 percent of the profits from the resale of the cars and their principal investment would be returned at the end of the term.
Some of the funds were returned to investors, according to court documents, which led investors to believe they were receiving “profits” earned on their investment. The government alleged that the funds returned to investors as profits were actually new funds from new investors.
No investment funds were used to purchase vehicles for resale, but were used for Bingham’s own personal expenses, including car loan and mortgage payments, credit card bills and checks made out to himself for cash.
Bingham not only falsely took money from investors from 2001 to 2007, but also he failed to filed income taxes from 2001 to 2006.
Bingham’s guilty pleas are a result of a plea agreement where he could face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for wire fraud and a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for money laundering. However, due to Bingham’s quick action to accept responsibility for his actions, according to the indictment, the government is recommending a sentencing range between 70 to 87 months — 5 to 7.25 years — for wire fraud and 57 to 71 months — approximately 4 to 6 years — for money laundering.
There are four alternative fine provisions included in the agreement which state Bingham will pay twice the gross gain resulting from the offense; twice the gross loss resulting from the offense; $250,000; or an amount specified in the section defining the offense. Twice the amount Bingham gained from Connecticut investors is more than $3 million.
The government is recommending Bingham be subject to a fine between $12, 500 and $125,000 for wire fraud and between $10,000 to $100,000 for money laundering.
In addition, Bingham will be ordered to pay restitution to the victims for lost income and necessary child care, transportation and other expenses incurred during the investigation of the case.
Bingham will also be required to file income tax returns for the years 2001 to 2006 or agree to the civil tax adjustments calculated by the IRS by signing Forms 4549 for the years in question.
Real property located at 8307 East 370th Road in Oologah and a sum of money equal to the value of all forfeitable assets Bingham owns will be forfeited to the federal government.
