Watchdog Update: 'Bring it on felon' pleads guilty

Todd Dyer, the Lake Geneva felon who has taunted federal prosecutors for years, once challenging them to "bring it on," threw in the towel Wednesday when he pleaded guilty to four fraud counts in plea bargains in which prosecutors are expected to recommend he serve 14 to 17 years in prison.

"Considering the charges and his plea, we view this as essentially an unconditional surrender," said Joseph Wall, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Dyer, a twice-convicted felon. Dyer was charged with masterminding a scheme that scammed about two dozen investors out of more than $1.5 million.

Dyer was defiant last year when he was indicted on 31 fraud counts for selling interests in companies that were to use the money to buy farmland, but actually never purchased a single acre. Dyer, who had twice before been convicted of fraud, boasted that he would be vindicated of the new charges at trial.

"I'm going to blow Joe Wall out of court," Dyer boasted. "Wall is going to look like the biggest moron who ever walked on this Earth."  

On Tuesday, Dyer was more reticent, quietly acknowledging his guilt in two separate fraud indictments when he was questioned by U.S. Magistrate Judge David Jones. The magistrate said he would recommend that Dyer's guilty pleas be accepted by the District Court judges.

Asked by a reporter why he suddenly decided to plead guilty, Dyer replied "no comment" as he hustled out of the small courtroom filled with about a half-dozen victims of the scheme. 

The Wednesday plea was the third time Dyer — who has had run-ins with securities regulators and law enforcement dating back to 1993 —  pleaded guilty to fraud. In 1999, he was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $2.4 million restitution for running a Ponzi scheme. Wall also prosecuted that case. Dyer was ordered to pay an additional $389,970 in 2004 when he was convicted of securities fraud in Illinois.

His latest guilty plea came on what was to be Day 3 of a jury trial in which Dyer was representing himself.

The first two days were marked by witnesses repeatedly telling Dyer — who was questioning them on cross-examination — that he had stolen their money. All of the victims testified that they knew Dyer as "Allen Todd," an alias he used to prevent investors from discovering his criminal record. 

"You stole my money," Phan Doan, a 65-year-old grandmother, repeatedly told Dyer as he attempted to question her on Tuesday. 

At one point, Doan broke down in tears when she saw Dyer sitting at the defense table. To help her continue her testimony, Wall suggested she look at him and not Dyer. 

The investigation of Dyer and his lengthy record of run-ins with law enforcement and securities regulators was first reported by the Journal Sentinel in 2013. The story detailed how Doan, who owned a Lake Geneva nail salon, lost $75,000 to Dyer.

There were courtroom fireworks Tuesday afternoon when Dyer questioned Trent Griffith, an Illinois farmer who invested $153,000 with Dyer and briefly worked as president of one of Dyer's farmland companies. Dyer asked Griffith whether he returned his $10,000 signing bonus after quitting a few weeks after being hired. Griffith snapped: "Why would I? ... I gave you $153,000 and you stole it."

When Dyer continued questioning Griffith, he looked at Wall, who was seated at the prosecutor's table, and said, "Joe, I'm not going to answer any more of this bullshit."

Prosecutors charged that Dyer and Nicholas Hindman, an Illinois accountant who falsely claimed he was a CPA, had deliberately misled investors into buying into Midwest Farmland Properties and related entities after promising investors a 6% return. In addition, witnesses testified that Dyer promised them a financial bonanza when one of the companies went public. Dyer repeatedly promised the initial public offering would occur in 2011, witnesses testified. 

Hindman pleaded guilty to two felony counts on Monday. 

Charles Rea, a South Dakota man who used to own a seed company, testified that Dyer told him the company had nearly $5 million in an escrow account and needed just $150,000 more before it could have an initial public offering. 

Rea invested $63,000 and planned to ultimately invest $150,000. Those plans were changed when he got a call from a fellow investor who told him that the man he knew as Allen Todd was not Allen Todd.

"His name is Todd Allen Dyer," Rea's friend told him. "He's already been in prison for fraud."

Asked his reaction, Rea said, "I'm in a courtroom, I won't give my reaction. It wasn't pleasant."

In his opening statement, Wall told the jury there was a simple reason none of the Dyer companies purchased farmland, as he had promised investors they would.

"They didn't do these things because (the businesses) were just shells," Wall said during his opening statement to the jury on Monday. "... They were successful in only one thing — bringing in investor funds and then spending it."

Wall told the jury the money collected by Dyer and his associates stayed with them. “It turned into a piggy bank for Todd Dyer,” Wall said, adding that $33,762 was spent at the Vegas Gentleman’s Club in Walworth County. Another $169,000 was taken by Dyer “in cash — you can’t trace it,” Wall said.

Dyer responded to Wall's opening statement by telling the jury, "That was ugly." 

Dyer acknowledged his felony record and asked the jury whether it thought "I was dumb enough to do the same thing again, or was I targeted."

During his examinations of witnesses, Dyer repeatedly had them read the prospectuses they received before investing and argued that the risks were stated in the documents. He also argued that the prospectuses did not promise a guaranteed return.

A letter he sent to potential investors, however, promised a "6% fixed annual minimum return." Those letters were signed by "Allen Todd, investor relations."

In his deal, Dyer also pleaded guilty to a scheme in which prosecutors charged he had scammed an Illinois family out of nearly $1 million after telling them his father, a well-known Lake Geneva insurance agent, had stolen the family's life insurance policy and made himself the beneficiary.

Dyer is scheduled to be sentenced in March.