Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995 TAG: 9504200078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Walter Eugene Hoffman, 60, is charged with 41 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and mail fraud stemming from the way he ran Hill Brothers Shoe Co. before it went out of business in 1992.
Hoffman, who now runs a business management firm in Ann Arbor, Mich., was in federal court in Roanoke on Wednesday for two hearings.
U.S. District Judge James Turk set the trial date and ordered Barry Tatel to remain Hoffman's attorney. Hoffman has not paid Tatel for his work on an earlier trial and Tatel had asked to be dismissed as his attorney. Instead, Turk said he must stay on the case and be paid the standard $40 per hour that court-appointed attorneys get.
Hoffman was found guilty in February of participating in a "straw man" loan scheme involving the late Salem developer Richard Hess and the now-defunct First Security Bank. Prosecutors charged that Hoffman signed for loans that really went to Hess so he could get in the good graces of a banker he hoped would help get money for Hill Brothers.
Hoffman was scheduled to report to a federal prison in Chicago next week to begin serving two years for his role in the loan scheme, but U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson approved a motion Wednesday allowing him to remain out on bond during an appeal.
Hoffman was charged in a November indictment with stealing money from Hill Brothers customers by accepting merchandise orders the company could not fill.
The indictment also charges that Hoffman failed to tell customers that many orders weren't filled, and that the company did not make refunds on the orders that never were filled.
The company marketed shoes for elderly women, and thousands of customers on fixed incomes lost their money, prosecutors say.
by CNB