Financial Institutions Destroy more than the Housing Market....

Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 1:07 PM EST
National Century co-founder pleads not guilty to witness tamperingBusiness First of Columbus - by Kevin Kemper Business First
Print Article Email Article Reprints RSS Feeds Add to Del.icio.us Digg This
Related News
NCFE president loses law team [Columbus]
National Century president indicted over attempted witness tampering [Columbus]
High-profile case promises high-stakes strategies [Columbus]


The former president of National Century Financial Enterprises Inc. and one of his associates went back to court Thursday morning to face arraignment on a conspiracy and witness tampering indictment.

Lance K. Poulsen, a founder of Dublin-based NCFE, pleaded not guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley in Columbus. The court appearance by Poulsen and his associate Karl A. Demmler, a former Dublin-area bar owner, was their second since being indicted on a witness tampering charge in October. Demmler also pleaded not guilty at Thursday's hearing.

A federal grand jury indicted Poulsen and Demmler in the fall on one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. According to the indictment, Poulsen and Demmler hatched a scheme to give $500,000 to an ex-NCFE executive if she would have "amnesia" when testifying as a government witness about the firm's 2002 collapse.

On Jan. 15, the government issued a revised, or superseding indictment, that in addition to the conspiracy charge added a count each of witness tampering and witness tampering by influencing testimony.

Additionally, Poulsen is facing six counts of securities fraud, four counts of concealment of money laundering and a count each of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy over National Century's collapse. The government alleges Poulsen led NCFE executives in embezzling as much as $3 billion.

Poulsen has been serving time in Franklin County Jail since autumn after the court revoked his pretrial release due to the witness tampering charges. However, Marbley issued an order Jan. 15 that will transfer Poulsen to the Ross County Jail in Chillicothe so he can adequately prepare for his criminal trial on the company's collapse, scheduled for August.

While Poulsen is scheduled to stand trial this summer, five other former NCFE executives are facing trial in February, and one is facing trial in October. The court scheduled all seven defendants to stand trial on February 4, but changed Poulsen's trial to August, and defendant James K. Happ's trial to October.

Poulsen's original attorneys quit in November after the government indicted him on witness tampering. Poulsen didn't hire new attorneys until December, and the court has granted his legal team time to catch up.

Meanwhile, the government didn't charge Happ, a former executive vice president at NCFE, with wrongdoing until last July while the other defendants were charged in May 2006. Happ and his team were also given additional time to prepare.