Twenty9
07-23-2004, 06:54 AM
Koyotes owner still owes investors in securities case
By Ric Anderson
The Capital-Journal
Ralph Adams has guided the Kansas Koyotes to 18 straight wins, no losses and back-to-back league championships as owner of the Topeka indoor football team.
But when it comes to paying restitution in a 1996 securities fraud case, his record is less than perfect.
"It's fairly spotty," said Rick Fleming, general counsel for the Kansas securities commissioner.
According to Shawnee County District Court records, Adams still owes more than $250,000 in restitution to seven people or trusts who lost $286,887 in a 1993 investment with him. Prosecutors threatened last year to revoke his probation for missing monthly restitution payments, and according to court records three of his checks for restitution have bounced -- including the most recent one.
During an interview this week, Adams said he had made arrangements to take care of the recently bounced check by the end of the week and resume regular monthly payments. He said he had adopted safeguards against further problems.
"I'm just a real bad record-keeper," he said. "My intentions are good; I just keep bad records sometimes. I'm letting my wife do more of the home-based record-keeping, and now we have an accounting firm doing the records for the businesses."
Adams said he was recovering from financial problems that began after he was placed on probation and intensified when financial commitments he had received from friends and family members to help start the Koyotes fell through at the last minute.
The team lost $125,000 after its shaky beginnings in 2003, Adams said, but could break even this year.
"We knew it was going to be an uphill climb, and it's been more of a challenge than we thought," he said. "But at the same time, my mom and dad never taught me how to quit. So in spite of the fact it's a little rugged at times, you just find a way to move forward. We'll make it. We're going to be fine."
Since establishing the two-time American Professional Football League champion Kansas Koyotes, owner Ralph Adams has been trying to not only make the fledgling indoor football team profitable but repay debts owed from a 1996 securities fraud case.Adams, 55, began paying restitution in July 1996 through a plea bargain with prosecutors from the state securities commissioner's office. In the agreement, Adams pleaded no contest and was found guilty of one count of unlawful sale or purchase of securities and one count of sale of unregistered securities stemming from the 1993 investment. Prosecutors dropped five other charges in return for the plea, and Adams was granted a five-year probation term.
In the summer of 2001, his probation was extended five years for failure to pay full restitution. In July 2003, state prosecutors moved to revoke Adams' probation for failing to make regular payments of $250 a month. Adams was allowed to remain on probation but was ordered to begin paying $500 per month beginning in February of this year.
According to court records, Adams delivered two $500 checks in March and a $125 check on May 7. That check, the last sent by Adams, was returned from the bank on May 29 because of insufficient funds.
Adams' legal problems haven't been limited to the criminal case. In the years he has owned the Koyotes, court records show, he has been ordered to pay a total of $4,568 through judgments in two cases in civil court.
Adams acknowledged he still owed money on those civil judgments but said he had worked out payment plans on each. Only one of the suits involved the Koyotes, for a $508.50 debt to Western Hills Golf Club Inc. relating to a golf tournament for the team.
"That was just a set of charges that were a surprise to me," Adams said. "The golf tournament had been set up by somebody else on the staff, and I was unfamiliar with some of these details that weren't communicated to me. And the timing of the billing didn't fit very well with the budget we had laid out. In spite of the fact we didn't know about it, it's still my responsibility, so we will get it paid."
The Koyotes are one of three teams remaining in the American Professional Football League, an affiliation of minor-league indoor teams. Two of the league's four original teams folded in 2003, the APFL's first year of operations, and three of the six teams that began the 2004 season fell by the wayside.
Adams said he was confident the league would stabilize and the Koyotes would provide him with the means to pay full restitution to victims in the 1996 case. During the 2004 season, the Koyotes averaged 2,000 fans in seven home games at the Kansas Expocentre.
"Being fully committed to it, having a great business with the football business, I expect it to happen," he said. "I'm not a very good prophet, so I don't know what the time frame will be, but I do expect it."
Topeka resident Geneva Olliso, a victim in the 1996 case, took little comfort in Adams' prediction. Olliso, an 80-year-old widow who is on a fixed income, said she quit expecting to receive a regular restitution payment long ago.
"It was $20 a month for a while, but for the last couple of years it's been $10, and not every month," she said.
Court records show Olliso has collected a little more than $1,000 of the $10,000 in restitution she is owed by Adams. At the current rate, it would take about 70 more years for Olliso to fully recover the remainder of her lost money.
Victims don't receive restitution directly from Adams. Rather, Adams sends lump payments to the court, which divides payments among victims through a formula based on the various amounts of their losses.
Adams said he was saddened by the victims' situations. He contends he also was duped in the deal, in which he sold investments on behalf of two California companies that later defaulted on loans and left investors with losses. He said the companies misled him into thinking their securities were insured and therefore didn't need to be registered.
"I placed way too much faith in people whom I should not have placed any faith in at all, as it turned out," he said. "You just say, 'OK, it's a bad deal. Let's figure out a plan to move forward and make the future better than the current situation is.' So that's what we get to do."
By Ric Anderson
The Capital-Journal
Ralph Adams has guided the Kansas Koyotes to 18 straight wins, no losses and back-to-back league championships as owner of the Topeka indoor football team.
But when it comes to paying restitution in a 1996 securities fraud case, his record is less than perfect.
"It's fairly spotty," said Rick Fleming, general counsel for the Kansas securities commissioner.
According to Shawnee County District Court records, Adams still owes more than $250,000 in restitution to seven people or trusts who lost $286,887 in a 1993 investment with him. Prosecutors threatened last year to revoke his probation for missing monthly restitution payments, and according to court records three of his checks for restitution have bounced -- including the most recent one.
During an interview this week, Adams said he had made arrangements to take care of the recently bounced check by the end of the week and resume regular monthly payments. He said he had adopted safeguards against further problems.
"I'm just a real bad record-keeper," he said. "My intentions are good; I just keep bad records sometimes. I'm letting my wife do more of the home-based record-keeping, and now we have an accounting firm doing the records for the businesses."
Adams said he was recovering from financial problems that began after he was placed on probation and intensified when financial commitments he had received from friends and family members to help start the Koyotes fell through at the last minute.
The team lost $125,000 after its shaky beginnings in 2003, Adams said, but could break even this year.
"We knew it was going to be an uphill climb, and it's been more of a challenge than we thought," he said. "But at the same time, my mom and dad never taught me how to quit. So in spite of the fact it's a little rugged at times, you just find a way to move forward. We'll make it. We're going to be fine."
Since establishing the two-time American Professional Football League champion Kansas Koyotes, owner Ralph Adams has been trying to not only make the fledgling indoor football team profitable but repay debts owed from a 1996 securities fraud case.Adams, 55, began paying restitution in July 1996 through a plea bargain with prosecutors from the state securities commissioner's office. In the agreement, Adams pleaded no contest and was found guilty of one count of unlawful sale or purchase of securities and one count of sale of unregistered securities stemming from the 1993 investment. Prosecutors dropped five other charges in return for the plea, and Adams was granted a five-year probation term.
In the summer of 2001, his probation was extended five years for failure to pay full restitution. In July 2003, state prosecutors moved to revoke Adams' probation for failing to make regular payments of $250 a month. Adams was allowed to remain on probation but was ordered to begin paying $500 per month beginning in February of this year.
According to court records, Adams delivered two $500 checks in March and a $125 check on May 7. That check, the last sent by Adams, was returned from the bank on May 29 because of insufficient funds.
Adams' legal problems haven't been limited to the criminal case. In the years he has owned the Koyotes, court records show, he has been ordered to pay a total of $4,568 through judgments in two cases in civil court.
Adams acknowledged he still owed money on those civil judgments but said he had worked out payment plans on each. Only one of the suits involved the Koyotes, for a $508.50 debt to Western Hills Golf Club Inc. relating to a golf tournament for the team.
"That was just a set of charges that were a surprise to me," Adams said. "The golf tournament had been set up by somebody else on the staff, and I was unfamiliar with some of these details that weren't communicated to me. And the timing of the billing didn't fit very well with the budget we had laid out. In spite of the fact we didn't know about it, it's still my responsibility, so we will get it paid."
The Koyotes are one of three teams remaining in the American Professional Football League, an affiliation of minor-league indoor teams. Two of the league's four original teams folded in 2003, the APFL's first year of operations, and three of the six teams that began the 2004 season fell by the wayside.
Adams said he was confident the league would stabilize and the Koyotes would provide him with the means to pay full restitution to victims in the 1996 case. During the 2004 season, the Koyotes averaged 2,000 fans in seven home games at the Kansas Expocentre.
"Being fully committed to it, having a great business with the football business, I expect it to happen," he said. "I'm not a very good prophet, so I don't know what the time frame will be, but I do expect it."
Topeka resident Geneva Olliso, a victim in the 1996 case, took little comfort in Adams' prediction. Olliso, an 80-year-old widow who is on a fixed income, said she quit expecting to receive a regular restitution payment long ago.
"It was $20 a month for a while, but for the last couple of years it's been $10, and not every month," she said.
Court records show Olliso has collected a little more than $1,000 of the $10,000 in restitution she is owed by Adams. At the current rate, it would take about 70 more years for Olliso to fully recover the remainder of her lost money.
Victims don't receive restitution directly from Adams. Rather, Adams sends lump payments to the court, which divides payments among victims through a formula based on the various amounts of their losses.
Adams said he was saddened by the victims' situations. He contends he also was duped in the deal, in which he sold investments on behalf of two California companies that later defaulted on loans and left investors with losses. He said the companies misled him into thinking their securities were insured and therefore didn't need to be registered.
"I placed way too much faith in people whom I should not have placed any faith in at all, as it turned out," he said. "You just say, 'OK, it's a bad deal. Let's figure out a plan to move forward and make the future better than the current situation is.' So that's what we get to do."