Suspected Biodiesel Fraud Scheme on 3 Continents Puts Man before Portland Jury

by Bryan Denson (The Oregonian/Oregon Live) Jack Holden is either a big-dreaming businessman whose failure to cash in on the biodiesel wave separated investors from more than $1 million, or he's a skilled con man who used God and greed to perpetrate a fraud on three continents.

That's how lawyers characterized Holden during opening statements Monday in Portland's U.S. District Court, where the 75-year-old defendant went on trial in an alleged plot to rip off investors in a series of get-rich-quick schemes.

Holden is accused of launching a plot in fall 2007 with Lloyd A. Sharp to lure investors into funding operations in Ghana and Chile that would turn the seeds of jatropha trees into liquid gold: low-cost biodiesel.

The duo posed as extremely devout Christians – Holden as a former missionary and pastor – and focused their pitches on a Christian men's group in the Portland area, according to a government trial brief. They offered low-risk investments in a business worth millions and were looking for a $350,000 investment.

"Holden claimed, among other things, that he had 5 million acres of land in Ghana that was under contract with local tribes to grow jatropha trees," according to the government brief. "Holden falsely told the investors that he would use their investment funds to buy a prefabricated refinery that would be shipped to and set up in Ghana, and that the plant would start producing biodiesel immediately."'

Holden and Sharp managed to take in $1.3 million with no intention of producing or selling biodiesel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna B. Maddux told the jury. READ MORE and MORE guilty verdict and MORE (OregonLive)

Excerpt from OregonLive: A 76-year-old Eugene man must spend more than seven years in federal prison and pay $1.4 million in restitution for his role in a fraudulent biodiesel scheme that spanned three continents, according to federal authorities.

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown this week sentenced Jack Holden to seven years and three months in prison after he was convicted of mail and wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit both offenses following a three-week trial in federal court.

Holden and co-defendant Lloyd Benton Sharp, also known as Kevin Thomas, 81, together defrauded 12 people who invested in a project to produce biodiesel fuel in the West African nation of Ghana. When the project failed, the two men duped the investors into providing additional funds to support non-existent projects to transport biodiesel fuel from Argentina to Chile, and to build biodiesel refineries in Chile, according to prosecutors. READ MORE