Springboro couple’s trial for alleged Ponzi scheme delayed

The trial of a Springboro couple accused of bilking investors out of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme has been delayed until Feb. 6, 2017.

Dayton’s U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rose on Thursday granted an unopposed defense motion made by William Apostelos’ attorney and joined by Connie Apostelos’ attorney to continue the trial due to a voluminous amount of discovery.

The Apostelos' were indicted last year on 27 counts alleging that the Springboro couple bilked nearly 500 investors out of tens of millions of dollars in a $70 million Ponzi scheme during at least a five-year period from 2009 to 2014.

Calling the more than 200 discs worth of discovery material “complex, detailed and extensive,” Rose said more time is needed and that it would be a “miscarriage of justice” if he didn’t grant a continuance.

Assistant U.S. attorney Brent Tabacchi didn’t fight the motion, saying the amount of discovery was the biggest he’s seen in his decade in the job. Rose also set a hearing for Connie Apostelos to June 6 and pushed back the motion deadline to Sept. 1.

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Both defendants also filed motions to have their electronic home monitoring bonds modified. Rose said Thursday he would consider them and rule in a couple days.

William Apostelos’ motion said he would like a 5 p.m. curfew so that he can travel to the University of Dayton law library “to conduct research in order to prepare his pro se defense to the parallel civil and bankruptcy cases, and to help prepare his defense to this criminal case.”

He also seeks to visit his aged mother, work on his properties, seek employment, exercise per doctor’s orders and attend jury trials in Rose’s court to better understand the process.

Public defender Arthur Mullins wrote that William Apostelos is not a flight risk despite the fact he’s “faced trial by media as far back as October of 2014.”

Mullins wrote that “Mr. Apostelos has exhausted his resources and needs to earn income in order to pay for the basic necessities of life, not the least of which is the food necessary for his daily survival.”

Connie Apostelos’ attorney, Jon Paul Rion, seeks to have his client removed from electronic home monitoring or at least have her bond changed to a curfew.

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