2 Men Indicted in Alleged Credit Scheme

The Ventura County grand jury indicted two men on grand theft and tax evasion charges for allegedly bilking American Express and other victims of more than $1 million in a credit scheme, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said Monday.

Wayne Neal Fleischer, 48, of Oxnard, and John Joseph Haggerty, 46, formerly of Ventura, were arrested outside the grand jury hearing room Monday at the county Government Center. They were charged with six counts of grand theft and two counts of tax evasion, Bradbury said. Fleischer also was charged with six counts of forgery.

Fleischer and Haggerty are accused of supplying false information to American Express so clients of a financial planning business they operated in Oxnard could obtain loans they would not normally qualify for, the district attorney said.

They would submit charge slips signed by their clients to a small airline charter at Camarillo Airport, which would deposit the slips into a bank account, keep 1% and return the balance to Fleischer and Haggerty, Deputy Dist. Atty. John L. Geb said. He said the charter firm would not be charged with any wrongdoing.

Within two years, it had become a “Ponzi” scheme that entailed borrowing larger and larger amounts of money from American Express, Geb said.

An American Express computer that seeks out account irregularities noticed the large numbers of transactions and an analyst looked into the case and notified the district attorney’s office, Geb said.

Both Fleischer and Haggerty were booked into Ventura County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, Bradbury said. They are scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court on Wednesday.