| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Wind energy businessman convicted of defrauding investors
Credit: Gregory Joseph Jaunich convicted of defrauding Averill Wind investors | Jim Hammerand, Digital editor- Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal | Apr 2, 2014 | www.bizjournals.com ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
A federal jury convicted a wind energy company’s founder for overselling a Minnesota project to investors and not telling them that he was under criminal investigation.
Gregory Joseph Jaunich, 52 of North Oaks, was found guilty of five counts of mail fraud, Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney’s office said Wednesday.
From October 2006 through January 2007, Jaunich use $1.5 million from investors to pay for personal expenses and projects other than the Clay County wind project he was pitching through his company, Averill Wind.
Prosecutors said he lied about progress on the project and didn’t tell investors that the feds were investigating whether he fraudulently overbilled Xcel Energy for wind energy production.
Jaunich was previously president and CEO of Minneapolis-based Navitas Energy Inc., which did business with Xcel.
To keep the scheme going, he mailed misleading letters to Averill investors in 2007 and 2008.
Each count of mail fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim will sentence him at a hearing that has not yet been scheduled.
Jaunich was sentenced to 21 months in prison in the Xcel overbilling case, the Star Tribune reported.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=62831 ]
