Nation : Former Regina Officers Admit Fraud

Two former top executives of Regina Co. pleaded guilty today to defrauding investors in the vacuum cleaner company of more than $100 million by issuing inflated earnings reports.

Former Regina Chairman Donald D. Sheelen, 42, and former chief financial officer Vincent P. Golden, 48, admitted misleading stockholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1987 and 1988. U.S. Atty. Samuel A. Alito Jr. said Sheelen instructed Golden to falsify sales by not subtracting returned appliances from company income. The two men could receive up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines at sentencing April 14.