DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — Michael E. Peppel, the former CEO of MCSi who was indicted last year on 26 criminal counts, now faces an additional 6 counts of money laundering.

Those counts were added in a superseding indictment dated Oct. 9, which had been sealed until yesterday, when Senior U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice ordered it unsealed.

Peppel will be arraigned on the new indictment on Nov. 20.

The original indictment charged Peppel with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, filing false SEC reports, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Those 26 counts are part of the new indictment.

Publicly traded since 1996, MCSi, a computer sales firm, went bankrupt in 2003. Between 1996 and 2000, MCSi acquired 26 companies. At the peak of its business, MCSi had offices at 160 locations, more than 50,000 clients, 2,000 vendors and 1,300 employees, according to the indictment.

The government claims Peppel and others caused 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 said.

In July, former Chief Financial Officer Ira Stanley pleaded guilty to three felony counts: conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud, one count of mail fraud, and one count of false certification of a financial report by a corporate officer. Stanley's October 15 sentencing was postponed until next year.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2057 or lgrieco@DaytonDailyNews.com.