Federal judge sentences “flim-flam artist” Randy Beltramea to two more years in prison

A federal judge once again called a former Marion investment broker an 'unrepentant flim-flam artist” when she sentenced him for obstruction of justice on Monday, giving him two additional years on his previous prison term.

Randy Beltramea, 52, made no apologies to the court or anyone else before U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade pronounced his prison term. He argued that he didn't 'complete the acts necessary” for obstruction of justice. Beltramea said he never sold any of the property lots, which were to be forfeited for victims' restitution in his previous 2013 fraud conviction. He noted that he took two checks but never cashed them.

'I think that's a matter of opinion,” Reade told Beltramea.

Reade went on to say he 'duped” the prosecution, just as he did the victims in the other fraud case, by agreeing to forfeit the Castlerock Estates property, near Mount Vernon, and then attempted to sell the lots and pocket the proceeds. Those lots were going to help Beltramea pay his ordered $337,488 in restitution, she pointed out.

Reade sentenced him to two years in prison on each of the four counts of obstruction of justice, which she ran concurrently, and then she ordered the two years to run consecutively to his previous nine year sentence for wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements, tax evasion and aggravated identity theft in 2014.

The delay in sentencing the obstruction charges was due to the Federal Public Defenders' Office filing an interlocutory appeal with the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the prosecution's subpoena of Beltramea's lawyer to testify at a previous hearing about his client's actions breaking the agreement on the forfeiture.

The district court overruled the public defender's motion and allowed the lawyer to testify during a hearing. Then, the 8th Circuit dismissed the appeal because Beltramea didn't join in the appeal and the lawyer didn't refuse to testify.

A plea agreement on the obstruction of justice charges shows Beltramea owned Castlerock Estates, which consisted of 80 acres of land, and that property was a forfeiture provision included in an indictment filed Aug. 21, 2013, with exception to one lot Beltramea sold before he was charged.

According to court documents, the government filed notices with the recorder of deeds that Castlerock was subject to forfeiture and Beltramea was provided with copies of the notices. Beltramea, after being charged, sold three lots for a total of over $160,000 from Sept. 6 to Oct. 23, 2013.

Beltramea then pleaded guilty to eight charges Oct. 31, 2013 and met with prosecutors to discuss the forfeiture issue, according to evidence presented at previous hearings. They reached an agreement to allow Beltramea to sell the real property at fair market value, including those lots he already sold, in an effort to recover as much restitution as possible for the victims.

The court ordered Beltramea to pay $337,488 to four victims and U.S. Bank when he was sentenced in 2014. On Dec. 11, 2013, Beltramea signed the preliminary order of forfeiture in which he gave up his legal claims to the property, according to court documents.

Then on Jan. 31, 2014, Beltramea used a power of attorney granted to him by his mother for other purposes to sign a mortgage to reflect that she loaned him $338,000 in exchange for a secured interest in the Castlerock development, according to previous testimony during hearings. His mother had no knowledge of it and didn't approve the mortgage.

In the first conviction, Beltramea solicited investors to buy Subway restaurants but instead, used their money for his real estate investments and personal expenses.

According to a plea agreement, Beltramea admitted he started a scheme to defraud investors in 2009 and 2010. In connection with soliciting money from one of the investors, Beltramea provided the investor with a promissory note on which he forged the signature of another person who was involved in buying a Subway restaurant.

Court documents show he also admitted that he obtained loans and loan extensions from two banks by providing them with false financial statements and with tax returns he said had been filed with the IRS.