![]() He currently operates the Knox Gold Exchange in Powell. Murphy, former pastor at Browns Gap Baptist Church in North Knox County and gospel singer. Last month, the other four defendants were charged in a superseding indictment that adjusted some of the charges against Allen and Thomas. ![]() She is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.Īllen and Thomas, the first defendants charged, were arrested in July of last year. * Sharon Kay Thomas, an employee of Allen's firm. She is charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and uttering a counterfeit investment document. Allen and Associates, a Louisville, Tenn., accounting firm through which some Benchmark investments were sold. The indictment states that in addition to those already arrested, there were other participants "known and unknown to the grand jury." And the Knoxville office had a postal meter machine that was used to put a Chicago postmark on replies to investor queries made to Chicago. Telephone calls to the toll-free number of the "Chicago office" were answered by people in the Knoxville office. The indictment outlines a series of sophisticated deceptions, including misleading websites, bogus IRS documents and a fake Benchmark parent office in Chicago, that mainly lured elderly retirees to invest the equity from their homes into bogus annuity investments. "The business purpose of Benchmark was to defraud investors by taking their funds in exchange for worthless and nonexistent investments, and paying a portion of funds received to earlier investors under the guise of dividends, interest and mortgage payments," a federal indictment states. Two years after it was incorporated, its charter was revoked. ![]() was formed in 2001, but never filed an annual report. State public records show Benchmark Capital Inc. He is named in the indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator.Ĭandler's main business was Benchmark Capital Inc., which had offices on Merchants Center Boulevard in Knoxville and in Greenville, S.C. Postal Inspectors, the FBI and the IRS were investigating Candler's businesses, he drove his car into Greenwood Cemetery on Tazewell Pike and shot himself to death. "C.D." Candler, took his case directly to the highest court of all. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton.īefore any charges were filed, the main player, Knoxville businessman Charles D. The trial date was set on Tuesday by U.S. 12, five women and one man who are accused of various roles in different companies linked to it are scheduled to go on trial in U.S. It was, federal authorities allege, "an elaborate hoax," a sophisticated and complicated scam that lasted more than 10 years.īy the time it began crumbling early last year, it had taken in more than $46 million, and cost investors more than $18 million, according to authorities the U.S.
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