{"id":14344,"date":"2013-03-08T17:39:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T22:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14344"},"modified":"2013-03-08T17:39:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-08T22:39:20","slug":"law-enforcement-sources-link-coatesville-defendant-to-explosives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14344","title":{"rendered":"Law-enforcement sources link Coatesville defendant to explosives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neither the FBI nor U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office would confirm ties<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"seal\"<\/a>A 42-year-old Coatesville man facing federal charges related to an alleged Ponzi scheme had ties to a cache of explosives found Thursday at a Malvern storage facility, law enforcement sources said Friday.<\/p>\n

However, neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office would confirm any link to Istvan Merchenthaler \u2013 also known as Steven Merchenthaler, Atilla Mergenthaler, Adien A. Donis, Adien Adonis, Joey Gallow, and T.S., among other aliases.<\/p>\n

FBI spokeswoman Carrie Adamowski said a \u201csignificant\u201d amount of explosives were found at the Public Storage facility in the unit block of Lancaster Avenue in East Whiteland Township. Merchenthaler has not been charged in connection with the explosives.<\/p>\n

Adamowksi said federal agents and bombs squads from multiple agencies \u201crendered the devices safe,\u201d which included detonating some at a nearby park. Adamowski said \u201cno threat to public safety\u201d occurred.<\/p>\n

Merchenthaler, who has resided at various times in Downingtown, Glenmoore, and West Chester, was first charged nearly a year ago with theft and fraud offenses related to a Ponzi scam, court records said. He agreed to pretrial release conditions and then violated them, disappearing in a stolen vehicle in October until he was apprehended last month in Maryland, federal officials said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, federal officials filed a superseding indictment with additional counts. He now faces charges that include a total of four counts of wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, four counts of money laundering, two counts of filing false tax returns, and two counts of interstate transportation of stolen property \u2013 related to two vehicles he stole while on the lam, court records said.<\/p>\n

According to the superseding indictment, from May 2006 to about February 2013, Merchenthaler claimed to be the founder of PhoneCard USA, a company he touted as a \u201cpremier distribution source\u201d for prepaid phone cards and cell phones.\u00a0 Prosecutors called the operation a Ponzi scheme, accusing Merchenthaler of stealing over $2 million from over 200 investors and using the funds for his own benefit and to perpetuate his scheme, the indictment said.<\/p>\n

Merchenthaler allegedly approached investors and persuaded them to make investments in PhoneCard USA.\u00a0 In his marketing materials, Merchenthaler claimed that these investments would finance the \u201cexponential growth\u201d of PhoneCard USA and would provide investors with \u201cgenerous returns,\u201d the indictment said, adding that he falsely boasted that PhoneCard USA had \u201clucrative contracts\u201d with major retail chains and that he maintained friendships with influential retail executives.<\/p>\n

Court records for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court show that Merchenthaler played a role in the 2009 disbarment of Daniel L. McCaughan, a West Chester attorney he accused of defrauding him. McCaughan, who later received a two- to four-year prison sentence for misusing another client\u2019s money, was hired in April 2004 by Merchentahler\u2019s family, who included Boglarka Foghi, a former assistant public defender in Chester County.<\/p>\n

The family sought McCaughan\u2019s representation because Merchenthaler had been arrested in San Paolo, Brazil, on drug-trafficking charges, records said. McCaughan bragged that he had \u201cdealings with an influential Columbian law firm specializing in international drug-trafficking cases,\u201d and Merchenthaler\u2019s family paid him $150,000, which was supposed to be transmitted to the Colombian firm through a Canadian intermediary, records said.<\/p>\n

Although McCaughan insisted he sent the money, he acknowledged he did not \u201cadequately safeguard\u201d it, court records said, adding that Merchenthaler was released in February 2005 after hiring a different law firm.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neither the FBI nor U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office would confirm ties By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times A 42-year-old Coatesville man facing federal charges related to an alleged Ponzi scheme had ties to a cache of explosives found Thursday at a Malvern storage facility, law enforcement sources said Friday. However, neither the FBI nor the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,317],"tags":[2934,2935,2936,2947,2937,2948,2938,2939,2940,2941],"class_list":["post-14344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-region","tag-adien-a-donis","tag-adien-adonis","tag-atilla-mergenthaler","tag-boglarka-foghi","tag-daniel-l-mccaughan","tag-fbi-spokeswoman-carrie-adamowski","tag-istvan-merchenthaler","tag-joey-gallow","tag-phonecard-usa","tag-steven-merchenthaler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}