Marion 'flim-flam' man will plead guilty to more federal charges  

By Trish Mehaffey, The Gazette

A former Marion investment broker, who a federal judge called an 'unrepentant flim-flam” man, will plead guilty to more charges Friday.

Randy Beltramea, 49, who is serving nine years in federal prison for wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements, tax evasion and aggravated identity theft, will plead guilty to four counts of obstruction of justice in U.S. District Court on Friday.

Beltramea in the obstruction of justice charges is accused of accepting money for property that was subject to forfeiture in his other conviction. Beltramea owned a housing development project near Mt. Vernon, Castlerock Estates, which consisted of 80 acres of land. The superseding indictment filed Aug. 21, 2013, included a forfeiture provision with exception to one lot of the property 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, according to court documents. He then pleaded guilty to eight charges Oct. 31, 2013 and met with prosecutors to discuss the forfeiture issue. 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 last year.

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. His mother had no knowledge of it and didn't approve the mortgage.

Beltramea faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 fine on each count. The court could run the counts consecutively for a total of 80 years in prison and $1 million fine.