{Lexington, Kentucky}...Friday, a federal jury convicted James Norman Turek, 66, of Lexington, on eight counts of securities fraud and five counts of tax fraud. Turek, the former president of a Lexington-based company, was found guilty on all counts of defrauding thousands of investors nationwide of $18 million. According to the evidence, from 2004 to 2006, Turek lured about 8,500 investors to buy Plasticon stock by falsely claiming that Plasticon was profitable when he knew that the company was losing millions of dollars. U.S. District Chief Judge Jennifer B. Coffman found Turek was a flight risk, and he was taken into custody by a U.S. Marshal. Turek is scheduled for sentencing on September 27th. Turek faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years on each count of securities fraud and three years on each count of tax fraud. However, Coffman must consider sentencing guidelines and the applicable statutes before imposing the sentence.
