Youth On Drugs: It's Time To Confront The Ugly Reality In Our Community

Atlanta Gets Ex-wilkes Star    

By STEVEN A. MORELLI smorelli@leader.net
 Sunday, January 20, 2002 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1A 





Kurt J. Keiper hesitated before answering this question from the judge:
``What else have you been arrested for?'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``Just one charge of a bad check,'' Keiper said as he faced District
Justice Gerald Feissner in an arraignment for seven felony theft charges in
Freeland. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ``That's it?'' Feissner asked. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``That's it,'' Keiper answered. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 That's far from ``it.'' That answer ignored a felony conviction for a bad
check in Lackawanna County just a few days earlier and two charges against him
in Monroe County. And all of these cases - totaling more than $1 million in
alleged theft - are also far from ``it,'' investigators say. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Altogether, it is more like $10 million to $15 million Keiper took from
people in an investment scheme and bad checks, they say. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Investigators and lawyers say Keiper got big money from people in a
short-term plan to buy tires in huge bulk for a discount and sell them quickly
to realize a large, rapid profit. Some of the ``investors'' say not only did
they lose their money, they question whether Keiper invested it in the first
place. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Keiper's lawyer, Bernard L. Siegel, disagreed that Keiper was scamming.
After all, he said, most of the people knew they were making a risky
investment. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``Everything here could have a simple explanation,'' Siegel said. ``Yes,
something went wrong, but that does not mean it is criminal.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But Siegel did agree with a prosecutor who said the scope of the
allegations is too much for one county to handle. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Barney Anderson, an assistant district attorney in Monroe County, said this
is a job for the state attorney general. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``The worse thing is if this is all done piecemeal,'' Anderson said.
``That's the way he's going to avoid jail.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Living the good life &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Bit by bit the story is coming out about Kurt Keiper, a man who owns almost
nothing but who has had nearly everything. Cars, motorcycles, ATVs,
snowmobiles, helicopters and jets, so many vehicles went in and out of
Keiper's life that many people saw them only once. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``Kurt likes his toys,'' Tony Grebousky said as he took a break from
changing oil at Keipers Discount Tires in White Haven. ``He likes the big
life.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Keiper's neighbors could not understand how he could afford it. The only
apparent employment the 30-year-old had was working in the small, two-bay tire
dealership his parents started to keep Keiper busy. And even there, employees
said they saw him rarely, usually when Keiper came by to show off his latest
vehicle. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 A neighbor across the street from Keiper's 3 W. Woodhaven Drive home in
White Haven said he saw Keiper drive a veritable parade of different vehicles
- Mercedes, Lexus, along with a few all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles. But
what really rocked the neighborhood was when Keiper would land his two-person
helicopter in his back yard. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``He didn't have enough room to land his bigger helicopter back there,''
Cos Grottola said and then laughed. ``My wife said, `Why don't you go over
there and ask for some college money for the kids?' '' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Life not so good for investors &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Keiper's big life was a large problem for some people who invested in his
deals and others who took his checks. After a couple of Keiper's high-living
years, families have businesses and homes on the line as they hold out hope to
get some money back. Others have even bigger problems. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Stephen Smith, an owner of Smith Blacktopping in Plains Township, advised
his family to invest in Keiper's tire deals, said Smith's attorney, Joseph
Yeager. Between Smith, his mother, brother and other family members, they lost
$2 million. But it did not stop there, Yeager said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Smith started getting phone calls from credit card and finance companies
asking about unpaid bills on credit cards he never asked for, Yeager said.
Smith discovered someone had used his identity to get, and abuse, credit and
had a suspicion who it was. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In one case, a Ford Explorer was purchased under Smith's name. An
investigator said enough information was available to show Keiper used Smith's
name to get the vehicle, but he said Smith did not want to prosecute because
he already had enough to deal with - kidnapping charges, for example. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Smith is accused of getting a band of people together for an abduction that
looked like a stock scene from a bad movie. According to court papers, Smith
bribed Keiper's ex-girlfriend to lure him to a Carbon County bar where Smith
and several other men beat and zapped Keiper with stun guns while dragging him
to a van. They took Keiper to a Lackawanna County warehouse where they bound
him to a chair and demanded their money back, an affidavit said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 So far, Keiper has been convicted in two felony cases of passing two bad
checks for substantial money. One was for $306,500 to McCarthy Tires in
Wilkes-Barre and the other for $84,266.64 to Michael Sandone, owner of Sandone
Tire &amp; Battery in Scranton. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In the Freeland case, Keiper told the Evans family of White Haven that he
would buy tires at a significant discount off barges when they were shipped to
the United States, according to an affidavit. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Keiper showed the family an investment portfolio that purported to show
profits he made for other people, an affidavit said. He also assured the
family that the deal was backed by Louis DeNaples, a powerful Lackawanna
County businessman. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Charles, Eugene and Lillian Evans between Sept. 12, 2000, and Oct. 23,
2000, gave Keiper checks totaling $615,000. Keiper offered only excuses when
the family asked for the money back. He later admitted he concocted the
portfolio and did not know DeNaples, court records show. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Here is a good point to answer the question, ``What were these people
thinking?'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 People gave Keiper money thinking they were going to make a good profit
quickly, said Donna DeBenedetto, a Brodheadsville businesswoman. After meeting
Keiper through her brother, Jay Sleight, she invested some money on one of
Keiper's tire deals. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 After an investment of about $30,000, Keiper returned about $34,000,
DeBenedetto said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``It seemed like a good thing, so, I did it again.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The next investment was $134,000, but this time nothing came back, she
said. When he made a partial payment, the $57,000 check bounced. At first she
believed his reasons. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``He could talk the pants right off you,'' DeBenedetto said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 She said she believes Keiper's intention all along was to take the money
and not carry out the deal he described. She also thinks her first ``profit''
was actually money he took from someone else, she said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Misdemeanor charges of theft by deception and passing a bad check were
filed in Brodheadsville on Dec. 4. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Also, in Monroe County, Keiper is accused of passing two bad $175,000
checks to repay a loan from Brad Cole, owner of Cole Aviation in Stroudsburg.
That loan was to finance a tire deal, said Anderson, the Monroe County
assistant district attorney. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 DeBenedetto's brother, Sleight, said he lost $164,000 in a scheme. But what
really bothers him is he unwittingly helped Keiper create a big-shot
impression with other people. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Sleight taught Keiper how to fly a helicopter and helped him get a pilot
license, Sleight said. Keiper eventually bought two helicopters, he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Sleight said Keiper hired him to fly people to New York City for dinner,
including Stephen Smith, who later invested millions in Keiper's deals. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``He said, `I met Kurt with you and you seemed like a nice guy and I
figured Kurt was all right,' '' Sleight said. ``That made me feel terrible.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Sleight also remembered how Keiper would tell people he owned the jets he
actually rented to fly people to Las Vegas for the weekend. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Sleight's helicopter sales business in Allentown is just about dead, he
said. He blames his association with Keiper. Sleight said he did not pursue
criminal charges because Keiper signed over a Bell helicopter Sleight hopes
will cover the losses and legal fees his family sustained. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But two other parties are after the helicopter because it is one of the few
assets anyone can find once associated with Keiper. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 One of those parties, McCarthy Tire in Wilkes-Barre, was promised the
helicopter as collateral to help cover more than $1 million in debt, according
to records in a civil suit. The other is a medical doctor in upstate New York
whom Sleight said is owed about $450,000 from Keiper. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Sleight said a hearing is scheduled this week to straighten out the
helicopter's ownership. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Sleight has been looking into Keiper's dealings for nearly a year, forming
kind of a club of people who say they have been victimized by Keiper. He
brought all of the information to Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney
Tim Doherty, who is handling the McCarthy case. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``He said he didn't have time for this,'' Sleight said. ``He said he was
taking care of the McCarthys and that was it.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Doherty confirmed he said he did not have the time to deal with the
information Sleight brought him. But he said he has been talking to
prosecutors in other counties about the prospect of centralizing the cases. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Sleight said he is happy many of the allegations are starting to come to
light but is hoping he can help a prosecutor to take in the whole picture. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``It took me 10 months to gather all this information and nobody wants to
deal with it,'' Sleight said. ``But I have a feeling somebody will want to
someday.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Steven A. Morelli, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7221. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

``it Seemed Like A Good Thing, So, I Did It Again. He Could Talk The Pants
Right Off You.'' 
Investors Feeling Blown Out 
Investigators Say Kurt J. Keiper Raised Lots Of Money In Deals To Buy And Sell
Tires That Fell More Than A Little Flat For Some.

``it Seemed Like A Good Thing, So, I Did It Again. He Could Talk The Pants Right Off You.'' Investors Feeling Blown Out Investigators Say Kurt J. Keiper Raised Lots Of Money In Deals To Buy And Sell Tires That Fell More Than A Little Flat For Some.