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Former financial officer's sentencing delayed
Monday, October 15, 2007
DAYTON — The sentencing of Ira H. Stanley, former chief financial officer for MCSi Inc., has been delayed until next year while the government proceeds with prosecuting the failed company's former chief executive Michael E. Peppel, a federal prosecutor said Monday.
Stanley, of Oakwood, was to have been sentenced Monday for his guilty pleas in July to federal charges of mail fraud; conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud, and false certification of a financial report by a corporate officer.
Extras
At the request of his lawyers, U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice has postponed Stanley's sentencing until Feb. 25, 2008, said Dwight Keller, an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case for the government.
MCSi was once a rapidly growing re-seller of computer technology and audiovisual communications products. The Dayton-based company collapsed in 2003, costing at least 1,300 employees their jobs and leaving stockholders with worthless shares.
The government indicted Peppel in December 2006 accusing him, and unindicted others, of causing MCSi to report net income from continuing operations of nearly $18.7 million for the year 2001, instead of an actual loss of about $24.7 million. The company overstated its reported gross revenue by about $28 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2002, the government contended.
The bogus report was achieved through falsified journal entries, backdated invoices, fabricated rebates and other fraudulent documents, federal authorities said.
Peppel is the only one the government has formally indicted in the case. The most serious of the charges against him carry potential prison terms of 25 years. He could also be fined millions of dollars if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
The charges that Stanley pleaded guilty to in July carry a maximum penalty of 45 years in prison and $5.5 million in fines. Stanley's lawyers have estimated, however, that under federal sentencing guidelines intended to promote uniform sentencing, his prison sentence likely would be in the range of five years, three months to six years, six months.
Rice has said that the sentencing range, which is not binding, could go lower if Stanley provides substantial assistance to federal investigators.
Stanley and Peppel are both free on bond.
No trial date has been set for Peppel. The judge could set a trial date this Friday, when Peppel's lawyers ask Rice for permission to draw money from Peppel assets the government has frozen, so that he can pay his attorneys.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
