Ellisville Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Charges

St. Louis, MO – William Glaser, 61, of Ellisville, Missouri, pled guilty to federal charges of wire fraud.  He appeared in federal court this afternoon before U.S. District Judge John Ross who accepted his guilty plea and set sentencing for June 7, 2019.

According to court documents, Glaser solicited 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.  Between 2015 and 2016, Glaser was working as a financial advisor for 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.

Glaser faces up to 10 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.  In determining the actual sentences, a judge is required to consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide recommended sentencing ranges.

This case was investigated by the St. Louis division of the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.