United States v. McCaskill

Facts

In 1997, Eric Hoberg sought to obtain $3.5 million in financing to build a grain mill in North Dakota. Hoberg initially asked for assistance from Richard Sclar. Sclar, however, left the country before fulfilling his promise and Sclar’s ex-wife, Sheila Greenspan, offered to assist Hoberg. Greenspan helped Hoberg obtain a $35,000 insurance binder in order to get funding from a bank or finance company. Greenspan then contacted Jay Elbel, who described himself as an attorney for Nigella Insurance Company. The president of Nigella was Dan Cimini. Ebel informed Greenspan that Nigella could provide the insurance guarantee for Hoberg’s mill, but Nigella was not a double- or triple-A rated insurer and required a major insurance company to reinsure the policy. In reality, Nigella was a sham company created by the appellant. Appellant contacted Ardeana Vance of A-Vance Insurance Agency to obtain the reinsurance. Vance then instructed Greenspan to send Hoberg’s $35,000 binder to a company Vance controlled. The $35,000 was then split between appellant ($10,000), Vance ($10,000), Cimini ($10,000) and Ebel ($5,000). Hoberg never received the promised financing. Appellant, Ebel, Vance, and Cimini were indicted in a 32-count indictment. The charges against Vance were dismissed prior to trial, Cimini pled guilty, and Ebel was placed in a pretrial diversion program. The appellant represented himself at trial. As noted in the PSR, the Government presented evidence at sentencing that appellant had actually swindled millions out of approximately 50 victims like Hoberg.