Inmate indicted in wire scheme/ Man tried to take $400,000 from firm

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Dec 28, 2001 | by Barry Bortnick

DENVER - A grand jury indicted a federal inmate this month on wire fraud charges for allegedly trying to set up a bogus securities firm while in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Englewood.

Ronald C. Black, serving a 78-month sentence in connection with a 1996 wire fraud conviction, nearly obtained $400,000 in checks from a legitimate securities firm in New York before the scheme was uncovered.

The alleged scam took place in March 1997 while Black was a prisoner in Englewood.

Black, 46, allegedly used the prison telephone system to develop the scam. He made several calls from the prison with the help of an accomplice in Barstow, Calif.

Police say Dana L. Goodlow, 24, arranged three-way phone calls for Black.

The telephone setup allowed the inmate to call secretarial services, banks and other businesses without being detected as a federal prisoner.

Inmates typically have access to telephones. They must provide prison officials with the phone numbers they wish to make. In this case, Black used a third party, Goodlow, "as a conduit to other outside sources," U.S. Attorney John Suthers said.

While it is difficult to prevent such three-way calling, all calls from inside federal prisons are recorded.

"It is easy to go back and figure out what has transpired," Suthers said.

According to a federal indictment filed this month in U.S. District Court, Black passed himself off as "Warren Richards," an alleged employee with Nomura Securities International.

The plan fell apart on March 27, 1997, when employees with Executive Secretarial Services, a legitimate firm Black had previously contacted, got in touch with the real Nomura Securities company in New York.

The FBI was contacted after it was learned no one named Warren Richards worked for the Nomura firm.