Six people indicted for multi-county financial schemes

BRYAN — Six people were recently indicted in the Williams County Common Pleas Court on charges related to financial schemes that were alleged to have occurred in multiple counties, including Auglaize County.

Those involved were Cooper Rademacher, 21; Kalie Gibler, 22; Noah Frisby, 23; Dion Fleet, 23; Brandon Randolph, 23; and Dale Champion, 20. Charges include engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, counterfeiting, identity fraud, forgery, breaking and entering, theft and possessing criminal tools.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation conducted an investigation into the group and found schemes of identity fraud, cashing forged checks, counterfeiting bank cards and making purchases with fake $20 bills between June 2022 and January 2023 in Pioneer, Bryan and Montpelier in Williams County, Defiance in Defiance County, Archbold in Fulton County and Wapakoneta.

Court documents allege Fleet had a report containing the personal information of 412 people in order to commit identity fraud.

Rademacher entered a business in Pioneer after hours and stole six payroll checks and a client check from the business. Multiple fraudulent checks were then cashed at different banks with Gibler, Rademacher, Champion and Fleet involved.

Gibler and Rademacher used counterfeit $20 bills at a McDonald’s in Montpelier. A counterfeit bill was also found at the Archbold McDonald’s where Gibler was a former manager. Frisby used the counterfeit bills Rademacher gave him at a Marathon gas station in Defiance.

A search of a motel room in Wapakoneta where Rademacher was staying found counterfeit $20 bills, checks and electronic devices and a credit card-style reader/writer.

Court documents said Randolph eventually admitted he helped Rademacher make around 20 fraudulent checks. Rademacher admitted he, Gibler and Randolph made fake bank and/or credit cards and used them, receiving between $4,000 and $7,000 from the schemes.

In addition to BCI, police departments in Pioneer, Montpelier, Wapakoneta, Defiance and Fairborn were involved in the investigation, as well as the Grand Lake Drug Task Force and the prosecutor’s offices of Williams, Auglaize and Defiance counties.

Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.