Backer of Lear Jet Project Arrested on Theft Charges
A man who posed as an Italian investment banker and pledged $257 million to revive the Lear Fan jet project has been arrested on a California parole violation and faces grand theft charges in Oregon, authorities said.
George Washington Upton, 43, who had gone by the alias of Domenique Ferritti of Milan, Italy, was arrested Thursday night while sipping champagne with Moya Lear and others at the MGM Grand in Reno.
Washoe County Sheriff Vince Swinney said Upton faces an arrest warrant in Fresno County, California, for violation of parole. He had been convicted of grand theft involving real estate and other fraud counts, Swinney said.
Faces Oregon Trial
Upton also is charged with grand theft in Bedford, Ore., and a trial date awaits him there, Swinney said.
California officials are to deliver a certified copy of Upton’s arrest warrant Monday.
Upton was arrested as he, Lear and others were celebrating after the announcement that a new company, funded with the $257 million, was being formed to buy the rights to develop the Lear Fan and pursue several projects.
John Aycoth, a spokesman for Moya Lear, widow of the developer of the Learjet, said Lear was suffering “emotional whiplash.” More than the family’s embarrassment, he said she is sick at heart over raising the hopes of more than 60 workers laid off when the plant closed two weeks ago.
Upton, Aycoth said, had presented various papers showing he had $257 million in assets to be used to start a new general partnership called Lear Aerospace Corp.
“The guy obviously is a very smooth operator,” Aycoth said. “We sat by while he talked on the phone to supposedly the British government, to officials in Washington. He made claims to have had an involvement with many wealthy individuals around the country that we have now, I think, found out are false.”
David Lear said his mother “will continue to attempt to somehow pull the Lear Fan project together. At this moment, it is very unclear how that will happen,” he said.
Lear Fan Ltd. filed for Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver on Thursday, listing assets of $7 million and liabilities of $475 million.
