Bryan Noel of Certified Estate Planners Indicted

Noel was arrested and charged in connection with an investment scheme which resulted in losses of approximately $7 million

June 5, 2009

HENDERSON COUNTY NC NEWS -- According to an indictment, which was returned and filed under seal by a federal grand jury sitting in Asheville, North Carolina on June 3, 2009, from around January 2003 until about July 2006, in Henderson County, Bryan Noel, 39, of Hendersonville with others solicited more than 100 clients to invest large sums of their retirement savings with Certified Estate Planners, Inc. (CEP) by promising a conservative investment strategy. The indictment alleges that in about 1999 Noel created CEP to solicit investors and to offer estate planning services geared toward retirees. The indictment alleges that shortly after the initial investments were collected, without the investors' knowledge, several million dollars of the investors' assets were diverted, thereby significantly decreasing the value of the investments. According to the allegations contained in the indictment, those funds were diverted to Bryan Noel's start-up lumber composite company. The indictment alleges that thereafter the value of the assets was continually misrepresented on the quarterly statements mailed to investors so that they would not know the true diminished value of their assets. In summary, the indictment alleges that by July 2006, Noel and an unindicted co-conspirator had misrepresented to investors that their assets had grown to a total of approximately $16 million, when in reality, investors' assets had shrunk to only approximately $1 million. According to the indictment, Noel filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in August of 2007.

Noel was arrested and charged with one count alleging conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 25 separate counts alleging mail fraud, and two separate counts alleging making a false oath in connection with a bankruptcy proceeding, all in connection with an investment scheme which resulted in losses of approximately $7 million. Additionally, Noel is separately charged in counts two through twenty-six with substantive violations of mail fraud alleging that he used the U.S. mail to cause false quarterly statements to be delivered to his investors for the purpose of further executing his alleged scheme to defraud.

Yesterday, Noel made his initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge and was detained pending a hearing. That hearing is scheduled for today, June 5, 2009, at 12:00 p.m. Furthermore, Edward R. Ryan, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, and Owen Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in North Carolina together announced the arrest and indictment of Bryan Noel. Acting U.S. Attorney Ryan said:

"We know that numerous victims have waited a long time for this day. We believe that the filing of these allegations is the first of many steps toward seeing justice served and recouping some of their losses."

If convicted, Noel faces a maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment on each of the conspiracy and mail fraud counts, five years' imprisonment on each of the counts alleging false oaths in a bankruptcy proceeding, and a maximum $250,000 fine for each count. FBI - Charlotte investigated the case and the prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Rikard of the Western District of North Carolina. Details contained in the indictment are merely allegations. Bryan Noel of Hendersonville, North Carolina, is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.