An Ohio man planned to turn St. Croix refinery scrap into personal profit by posing as his Florida investor, then cutting the investor out of the deal, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
A federal grand jury on St. Croix indicted Mitch G. Stevenson, 61, on wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges Tuesday. Stevenson was arrested by the FBI in Cincinnati and detained pending further hearings, according to United States Attorney Delia L. Smith.
Prosecutors alleged Stevenson contracted with a Florida investor to purchase 9,200 feet of miscellaneous electric wire and cable from Port Hamilton’s refinery using $83,200 from a Florida investor. The plan was to ship the waste to the mainland, where copper would be extracted then resold for profit. The two men would then equally split the profits from the sale of the extracted copper, according to prosecutors.
Instead, prosecutors said, Stevenson presented the $83,200 to Port Hamilton as his own money and had the bill of sale made out in his name alone. He presented the Florida investor with a fake bill of sale listing both men as owners of the copper, according to Smith.