Barboursville, West Virginia Man Charged with Wire and Mail Fraud

A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Randall Thomas Keyser, age 56, of Barboursville, West Virginia, with 13 counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud after he tried to defraud an Akron-based company by posing as an Army general, Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced today.

“Passing oneself off as an Army general as a way to defraud a company and get money is an insult to all the brave men and women who have served and continue to serve in our nation’s military,” Dettelbach said.

Keyser, age 56, is also known as Carl R. Keyser, Jr., aka Carl Randall Thomas Keyser, aka Carl Thomas Keyser, Jr

The indictment charges Keyser with devising a scheme and artifice to defraud an Akron development company and one of its subsidiaries and to obtain money or property from them by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises.

More specifically, the indictment describes how Keyser attempted to get hired as the director of construction and obtain the associated pay, signing bonuses, and other perks by posing as a major general in the United States Army and the commanding officer of the Department of Defense’s Joint Construction Command, claiming to answer directly to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and representing himself to be a commissioned officer with 30 years experience who had been stationed around the world, held numerous high-level commissions, and had overseen or supervised several multi-million-dollar construction projects throughout the world. Keyser further posed as other high-ranking military officers to provide telephone recommendations for himself for the position. Keyser made interstate telephone calls, sent e-mails across state lines, and mailed documents to Ohio from West Virginia to execute and attempt to execute the scheme.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Akron Resident Office.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the

violation. In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The indictment was presented to the grand jury by Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca Lutzko.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.