Milan man faces federal fraud charges
Wanda English Burnett - Editor

According to information from the United States Attorney General's Office, Stephen A. Hall, 49, of Milan, has been charged in two indictments last week by a federal grand jury.

Susan W. Brooks, US Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, noted that Hall was charged in two indictments - one for mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, and one for selling firearms to a felon and possessing and selling an unregistered firearm.

According to information from the US Department "the fraud indictment alleges that Hall perpetrated a scheme in which he convinced Floyd Werner, the victim, that he owned the rights to substantial coal deposits. Hall and Werner agreed that Werner would invest money in the mine while Hall would manage the mining operation."

The indictment further alleges that Hall did not own mineral rights to the land he was supposed to own and the venture was "nothing more than a scheme devised to defraud Werner of $1.5 million.

In the second indictment brought by a grand jury concerns Hall allegedly selling firearms to a "person he knew, or had reasonable cause to believe, was a felon." The indictment alleges that Hall possessed and sold an unregistered silencer.

Assistant United States Attorney Winfield D. Ong is prosecuting the case for the government. He noted in a press release that the fraud charges have a maximum possible
prison sentence of 30 years and a maximum possible fine of $1,000,000. The firearms charges have a maximum possible prison sentence of ten years and a maximum possible fine of $250,000.

An initial hearing will be set and will take place before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Indianapolis.