Indictments Filed In Florida Biofuel Fraud

U.S.  Attorney Robert E. O’Neill has announced the return of an indictment charging  William A. Vasden, Jr. (36, Tampa) with 30 counts of wire fraud, and one count of making false statements.  If convicted, Vasden faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud charge and up to five years in federal prison for the false statement charge.

According to the indictment, Vasden is the president of a Tampa-based for-profit company known as USCJO, Inc., which Vasden claimed grew fuel and energy-producing crops in Florida.  Beginning on or about August 1, 2010, through on or about November 30, 2011, Vasden allegedly defrauded at least three investors and/or buyers out of $3.2 million by falsely and fraudulently representing a specific outcome in their investment and/or purchase orders. Vasden coordinated multiple seminars and meetings around the state of Florida, in which he solicited farmers and investors to contract with his company to plant renewable energy crops that he claimed could be refined into usable biofuel and biomass for power generation.

During the meetings and seminars, Vasden falsely claimed that he was a farmer whose family owned thousands of acres of land and that he was growing and selling the harvested crops to end user consumers and to the U.S. military for a substantial profit. Vasden lured investors into paying him to plant the crops based on promises of substantial investment returns.  He also fraudulently induced a buyer to enter into purchase order agreements for a substantial amount of money to sell citrus chips.  

From October of 2010 through April of 2011, Vasden provided false statements in an application for a federal clean energy grant. Those government funds were ultimately not issued when Vasden’s fraudulent activities were discovered.