UNITED STATES-CATTLE FRAUD.
Another civil complaint has been filed in a multimillion-dollar banking and phantom cattle scandal in Greenbrier County.
B&W Inc., a Nebraska corporation, named First National Bank of Ronceverte and former board member G. Thomas Garten and former president Charles A.. Henthorn as co-defendants. The Bluefield law firm of Brewster, Morhous, Cameron, Caruth, Moore, Kersey & Stafford is representing B&W.
The lawsuit’s general allegations are similar to those in several other lawsuits previously filed against all three defendants, which center around Kevin Scott OBrien, the former Ronceverte cattle broker who authorities say bilked investors for millions of dollars through Ponzi and phantom cattle schemes.
The lawsuit alleges FNB loaned O’Brien, 28, nearly a $450,000 in unsecured loans, which O’Brien used to "float" or "kite" checks "in order to obtain credit for checks for which there were no actual funds on deposit." The suit also said O’Brien used bank statements to "falsely inflate his assets." O’Brien was not named as a defendant in this suit or any of the other similar suits.
B&W is asking the court for over $1.2 million in damages — allegedly lost through O’Brien’s schemes — along with punitive damages and attorney’s fees. The lawsuit alleges FNB and bank officials should have realized O’Brien was a fraud prior to giving him unsecured loans which O’Brien used to con investors.
O’Brien, Henthorn, 48, and Garten, 54, were sentenced to federal prison terms after their convictions stemming from the scandal.
