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The former president and CEO of a Parkersburg company created to provide broadband Internet service to rural areas is accused of misappropriating millions of dollars.
Authorities are trying to locate Heidi C. Laughery, who was indicted Wednesday on federal charges of mail fraud, theft from an organization receiving federal funds, money laundering conspiracy and engaging in an illegal money transaction.
Mid-Ohio Regional Council Director Jim Mylott told the Herald that the project would have provided high-speed services in Wood-Washington County, with expansion up and down the valley.
"Technically, it called for expansion of business service into the MPVRC areas like Calhoun, Roane and Wirt for business access.
Laughery is accused of conspiring with others to embezzle from Sequelle Communications Alliance, which she ran from September 2001 to March 2005.
In 2002, Sequelle Communications Alliance Inc. opened its operations center in Wood County boasting that its efforts to provide wireless Internet would create about 50 jobs with a salary of $45,000.
The alleged scheme involved grant and loan money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council, United Bank and the states of West Virginia and Ohio.
Laughery, who is also known as Heidi Ditchendorf and Heidi Caroline, secured a $3.295 million loan from the federal Rural Utilities Service in March 2002.
Laughery estimated that the company would have an additional $2 million in funds from other sources, which would cover the cost of salaries, office space, utilities and supplies and marketing and sales expenses, the indictment states.
Through the Wood County Commission, Sequelle also applied for a $600,000 Small Cities Block Grant from the West Virginia Development Office, according to the indictment.
The company also secured a $160,000 loan from the Mid-Ohio Regional Council and a $340,000 loan from United Bank.
The loan applications failed to disclose that she had been convicted of felony wire fraud in California in 1987 for embezzling more than $130,000 of clients' assets while she worked for Merrill Lynch as a broker.
She had filed for bankruptcy in Ohio in April 2001.
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