[Article] Bill Hynes charged with stealing $4.39 million from UFD, York Daiy Record Options

[PillarofDavidson99]

More charges were filed. Maybe this is why it was taken down.

https://www.ydr.com/story/news/local/2023/0...so/70644633007/

[Edit dangum: thread split from #37 Chad Taylor Sold the Drama, We want a Refund!, feat. Chad Gracey and Bill Hynes

This post has been edited by dangum: Aug 22 2023, 5:46 am

[dangum]

Bill Hynes charged with stealing $4.39 million from United Fiber and Data
Mike Argento
York Daily Record

In February, Rolling Stone reported that Bill Hynes, the former CEO of business entities founded by him and members of the rock band Live, was under investigation for allegedly stealing $3.82 million from the band’s headlining business venture, United Fiber and Data.

At the time, Hynes said that allegation was untrue.

But in a criminal complaint filed Aug. 16 charging Hynes with two felonies - theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and theft by deception by false impressions - the Pennsylvania State Police accused Hynes of stealing nearly $4.4 million from UFD and the family of its primary investor, the late York business magnate and millionaire philanthropist Louis Appell Jr.

Released on $25,000 bail, Hynes responded to the charges by saying, “I am shocked and outraged by these charges. These matters were amicably resolved in July of 2022. My legal team is already in possession of significant exonerating evidence, and I look forward to my day in court.”



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The 16-page criminal complaint offers excruciating details of alleged misdeeds Hynes committed while serving as CEO of Live’s various business ventures.

It alleges spending money for endorsements of the business, to collecting thousands of dollars for personal use, to stealing millions of dollars from a state program intended to redevelop blighted urban properties.

The charges are the latest in the byzantine legal saga that Live and its members find themselves engrossed in. Hynes, who had a previous criminal record of fraud, has had his own legal troubles, from criminal charges brought by a former girlfriend who accused him of stalking and abusing her. He pleaded no contest to some of the charges, he said, to put the matter behind him and was sentenced to six months of house arrest and three years' probation.

Additionally, Hynes and former Live guitarist Chad Taylor are embroiled in a legal battle − with Taylor accusing Hynes of stealing $10 million from him and Hynes accusing Taylor of defamation.



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The criminal complaint filed against Hynes for the theft charges outlines his relationship with band members Taylor, bass player Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey, and with Appell.

In the complaint, state police Trooper Timothy Reynolds writes that Hynes became CEO of UFD in November 2015 and remained in that position, with unfettered access to the company’s resources until his resignation in 2019, when he was arrested on charges related to stalking and abusing his former girlfriend.

It also describes Appell’s involvement in the company, including $25.25 million in loans to the band’s business ventures in exchange for equity in the enterprises. Later, the trooper wrote that Appell’s son told him that his father invested more than $60 million in UFD, hoping that the company’s plan to build and manage a fiber-optic line from New York to Virginia would pay off down the line.



Band members ceded control of the company and its finances to Hynes. According to the complaint, Hynes, who was involved in truck racing, paid $3 million to sponsor Andretti Motorports, a deal that band members were unaware of. At the time, the criminal complaint states, UFD had not generated any revenue and, further, band members were unaware that Hynes had cut the deal. The deal did ingratiate Hynes to the Andrettis – one of the royal families of Indy car racing – and gave him access special events at races. The trooper wrote that the transaction, hyped at a press conference in York featuring one of the Andrettis’ Indy cars, “greatly benefitted Hynes but offered no benefit to UFD.”

The trooper also wrote that Hynes “maneuvered money between numerous accounts to obfuscate his financial malfeasance and told investors, including (Appell) that the investments were being used to fund the construction of UFD’s fiber optic line.”

UFD executives went to police

The investigation into Hynes began when two UFD executives - CEO Andrew Paxton and Chief Operating Officer Christopher Lodge - went to state police to report “multiple incidents of theft” committed by Hynes. They told troopers that they believed Hynes had used more than $3.7 million on personal purchases, or outright stole the money.

The allegations came to light after Hynes was arrested on the charges related to his domestic situation. When members of UFD’s board met to discuss business, according to the complaint, members would say that Hynes selectively provided them with information “to conceal the depths of his financial malfeasance.” An internal investigation concluded that Hynes “was stealing company funds for his own personal use and gain," according to the complaint.



Among those was $275,000 Hynes paid to Indianapolis Motor Sports Productions to underwrite expenses related to Stadium Super Trucks, a “personal endeavor” of Hynes’, according to the criminal complaint, and “unrelated to his responsibilities as CEO of UFD.” The complaint further states that Hynes was “specifically told by executives and board members of UFD ... not to use company funds on his personal racing endeavors.”

The complaint alleges that Hynes “fabricated” invoices to cover entry fees in Stadium Super Truck races, doctoring the invoices “to remove any mention of racing, or simply created invoices” to the tune of $275,000.

One UFD bookkeeper told state police that the invoices, which covered driver sponsorships, entry fees, car repairs and other expenses were “very vague in nature.”

State RACP grant

Among the most significant allegations in the complaint is a charge that Hynes “stole” over $3 million from a state grant program intended to redevelop blighted communities. Called the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, the grants were intended to assist people and business in “the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational and historic improvement projects.”

The grants required local investors to put the money up front to pay for projects, which would then be reimbursed by the state. The York County Redevelopment Authority won a $5 million grant to assist Live’s company, Think Loud Development, to renovate its property on York Street.

Louis Appell agreed to front the company $5 million to complete the project and qualify for the state grant. Kinsley Construction was contracted to perform the work, which totaled $14 million and later, after the debt went unpaid, prompted Kinsley to seize ownership of Think Loud headquarters, housed in an old industrial building.

After Appell’s death in 2016, his son, Louis Appell III, took responsibility for his father’s business. When Appell III’s wife questioned Hynes about the state funds, the complaint states, Hynes said “he was still working on getting the funds from the state.” In fact, the complaint states, the money had been deposited in UFD bank accounts a year prior and had been transferred out of those accounts to “various companies that Hynes owns.”

A lawsuit filed by UFD against Hynes regarding Appell’s investment had been settled in August 2022. In a statement released upon the undisclosed settlement, Appell’s attorney Justin Tomevi, wrote, "United Fiber & Data, LLC and Mr. Louis Appell, III confirm that all outstanding claims against Mr. Hynes and his related entity have been mutually, fully and fairly settled, including all allegations of fraud, theft of funds and related allegations of wrongdoing alleged in the Complaint that United Fiber & Data, LLC and Mr. Appell filed. Both parties are satisfied with the result of the business resolution and look forward to seeing UFD become a profitable company."

The state police, apparently, took a different view, and the result of the lengthy investigation is that Hynes being charged with two felonies.

https://www.ydr.com/story/news/local/2023/0...so/70644633007/