SIOUX FALLS – Global Aquaponics executives Tobias Ritesman and Timothy Burns have each been indicted by a federal grand jury on 18 counts of mail and wire fraud.
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active, online-only subscription then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
SIOUX FALLS – Global Aquaponics executives Tobias Ritesman and Timothy Burns have each been indicted by a federal grand jury on 18 counts of mail and wire fraud.
If convicted, each count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Ritesman, Global Aquaponics CEO, made his first court appearance in Sioux Falls Wednesday, the Argus Leader and Keloland News reported. Burns, a real estate developer and former COO for the company, has a hearing Friday.
Federal prosecutors say Ritesman and Burns misled potential investors about the viability of Global Aquaponics. An indictment says investors were told that a nearly $11 million high-tech farm would be built in Brookings to grow fish and shrimp. The water from the fish tanks would be used to grow vegetables.
Global Aquaponics held a groundbreaking for the project in June 2016 on land it didn’t yet own. Lobbyist and former state legislator Dean Krogman later stepped in and traded a twin home he owned for the land and transferred it to Global Aquaponics for $1.
Local investors purchased ownership units of the project for $25,000 apiece, but nothing ever happened at the farm site, and investors weren’t getting answers to their questions. Investors had been told the farm would be operational by spring 2017.
A judge also awarded Gregg Selberg, a former employee of Ritesman who called Global Aquaponics a “sham corporation,” a nearly $400,000 civil judgement against Ritesman last month.
The six-page indictment against Ritesman alleges the two defendants “devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud and to obtain money and property from others by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.”
The court documents say Ritesman and Burns claimed Global Aquaponics had $5.6 million cash on hand and had obtained a $3.7 million bond when it did not. Another $5.4 million would come from investors.
The pair also allegedly claimed two entities had purchased portions of future food production from the facility, when no arrangements had been made.
The indictment says based on those false and fraudulent representations, “some individuals paid money in the form of personal checks, cashier’s checks or wire transfers” to the company.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Annie Hoffman says the defendants used the investor funds for their own purposes, not for the project. Ritesman has been released on personal recognizance bond.
