Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508070119
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
NORFOLK - A former financial planner has pleaded guilty to fraud in a scheme that authorities say bilked investors of nearly $300,000, much of it money put aside for their children's college educations.
Robert K. Williams, 55, owner of College Planning Services Inc. of Virginia Beach, was ordered into federal custody Friday after he admitted his guilt.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. noted that Williams had fled to Egypt to avoid prosecution before returning April 1995. Sentencing was set for Nov. 1.
Williams faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for a single count of mail fraud. He also may be required to pay restitution.
``The victims looked to Mr. Williams for sound investment strategy and advice, and unfortunately they ended up being swindled by him,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan M. Salsbury said.
Between July 1992 and August 1994, Williams told 14 clients that he would invest their money through his investment management company in mutual funds, trusts and other financial funds that would yield high returns. Eight of those investors were hoping to finance their children's college education.
Instead of investing the money, Williams deposited it into his business account and then used it to pay personal and business expenses, according to court papers.
One investor got a small portion of his money back in the form of investment payments, but all the others lost their money.
``It was the biggest mistake I made in my life,'' said a 65-year-old shipyard worker who asked not to be named. In 1994 he gave Williams $30,000, which he never saw again.
The shipyard worker said he first heard about Williams in radio commercials and then attended one of the free investment seminars Williams advertised. He called the Better Business Bureau and talked to officials at the State Corporation Commission in Richmond before investing.
``I'm embarrassed for being such a fool and falling for such a scam as that,'' he said. ``I'm a retired man ... It's not like I can start over. It brought me to a standstill.''
A spokesman at the securities division of the State Corporation Commission said Williams was disciplined for acting as an investment advisor without being registered in April 1992. The complaint was renewed in December 1994.
Williams also went through personal bankruptcy in 1982, according to the spokesman.
- Associated Press
\ Bank bandits drop cash, gun in escape
CHARLOTTESVILLE - Armed men who robbed the Jefferson National Bank of more than $100,000 dropped thousands of dollars in cash and a shotgun as they fled the area, police said.
No one was injured and no weapons were fired during the holdup Friday, police Lt. J.E. Harding said.
``When they came in, they stuck a gun in my back and told me to get out of the way,'' said Mike Hensley, a customer who had gone into the bank during his lunch hour to cash a check. ``I was scared.''
Harding said what witnesses believed was the getaway car - described as a light blue station wagon - was last seen heading west on Interstate 64.
Witnesses told police at least four and possibly five men carrying a shotgun and as many as three handguns entered the bank shortly after noon. The men ordered people against a wall and told them not look at their faces, which were uncovered.
``It happened so fast,'' Hensley said. ``I didn't know what was going on.''
The suspects escaped with a money bag containing the cash and a dye pack, which witnesses said exploded and left red marks behind.
- Associated Press
\ Robin Hoods not welcome in Fairfax
FAIRFAX - Modern-day Robin Hoods may be required to stow their bows and arrows while in the land of suburbia if Fairfax County supervisors heed a resident's warning that archers pose a potential threat.
A public hearing on an ordinance regulating the use of arrows is set for Monday. Prompting the proposed restrictions is a 1992 incident in which a neighbor taking target practice accidentally launched an arrow toward Barbara Matthews' house. No one was hurt.
Although the missile did no harm, Matthews imagined what would have happened had it struck her 3-year-old granddaughter as she played nearby.
``It scared me to death,'' Ms. Matthews recalled. After she notified police, officials realized they had no law on the books to penalize the errant archer.
The county at first tried to ban all shooting of arrows in residential neighborhoods. When a bill to permit such a move reached the General Assembly last year, archers revolted.
``There has never been anyone killed, to the best of my knowledge, by a bow and arrow in Virginia since the time of the Indians,'' said Whitney Wagner, 50, of Springfield, an architect who belongs to the Belvoir Bowhunters club.
Del. Alan E. Mayer, D-Fairfax, agreed to put off action for a year so he could work out a compromise. In October, a county supervisor, a county attorney and a collection of archers spent a Saturday morning talking about bows and arrows and suburbia in the '90s.
In March, the legislature voted that archery still will be allowed in residential areas, but if its practitioners ``reasonably expect'' that an arrow will land on someone else's property, they need the property owner's permission.
Whether that permission must be written or simply oral is unclear, but the vote gave Fairfax County the green light to adopt its own archery-related measure. Mayer said the General Assembly's action does nothing to prohibit children from running about with a bow armed with suction-cup arrows.
At a time when hundreds of residents are applying for permission to carry concealed handguns on Fairfax streets, some people can't understand why local officials spend so much time talking about bows and arrows.
``The county has enough to worry about without going after something like this,'' said Bob Seltzerpresident of the Traditional Bowhunters of Virginia.
- Associated Press
by CNB