Ellisville Man Indicted on Wire Fraud Charges

William Glaser, 60 of Ellisville, Missouri surrendered this morning in federal court to an Indictment charging him with three counts of wire fraud in connection with his solicitation of more than $1,000,000 in investments from three former clients.  The investments went to Paul Creager of Everett Builders whose St Louis County construction company was liquidated by creditors last summer. 

The indictment alleges that, between 2015 and 2016, Glaser was working as a financial advisor and misled his clients by falsely representing he had put his own money into Creager’s company and by failing to disclose that he was receiving large commissions out of his client’s funds.  In order to liquidate his clients’ investments so that they could go to Creager, Glaser facilitated the establishment of self-directed IRAs on his clients’ behalf.  Soon after the establishment of these accounts, Creager placed large portions of his clients’ retirement portfolios into high-yield unsecured promissory notes with Creager’s company.   No payments were made on any of the notes.

Creager himself has pleaded guilty to one case charging him with wire fraud in connection with the solicitation of investments for his company and faces a second case alleging similar misconduct in the solicitation of another investor and an additional fraud scheme related to the closing on one of his properties.  Glaser is not alleged to have participated in either of the fraud schemes with which Creager has been charged.

If convicted, Creager faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment, a fine of more than $250,000 or both per count.  Restitution to the victims is also mandatory and the government is seeking a money judgment by way of a forfeiture allegation to further facilitate the recovery of any funds available for restitution.

This case was investigated by the St. Louis division of the FBI.  Tom Albus is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s office.